Hmmm.
Jose Mourinho is a master of interviews. He can be expressive, inscrutable and downright tetchy, sometimes all in the same interview.
So, when BT Sport’s Des Kelly thrust his microphone up towards the Portuguese coach’s mouth ahead of Manchester United’s Champions League tie with Sevilla, what came next was always going to be of interest seeing that he had opted not to start Paul Pogba in midfield for the club’s biggest game of the season.
“You always go to the one who doesn’t start. [Scott] McTominay is in because he is working hard every day and is feeling strong and Paul last Saturday wasn’t able to play and this is the kind of game that demands quality and the player must feel 100%.
“I don’t say so much tactically and Paul [Pogba] could play in one of the three roles we’re going with tonight, but Paul created some doubt by not playing by his own decision. He was not feeling good – and created some doubts.
When Kelly proceeded to ask about Mourinho being able to call upon Pogba from the bench, Mourinho interjected abruptly with: “Three questions and three about Paul, you don’t have other questions?”
Kelly responded with “I have loads of questions,” to which Mourinho said “so another one.”
"Paul created some doubt by not playing on Saturday. Not playing by his own decision" – Jose Mourinho spoke to Des about his team selection in Spain tonight. #SEVMUN #UCL pic.twitter.com/0FJ1g2S1c4
— eir Sport (@eirSport) February 21, 2018
So, what is Mourinho saying here? Did Pogba pull a sickie himself without medical advice ahead of the Huddersfield game last weekend? Is the Frenchman in his manager’s bad books because he ‘created doubt?’ It certainly seems as though Mourinho is favouring McTominay over Pogba.
You’d think that would delight fans, giving a youth academy graduate a chance to shine on such a grand stage. But, if you have a £89m midfielder available, conventional wisdom dictates you will play him.
It’s becomingly increasingly evident that all is not well between Mourinho and Pogba, otherwise Mourinho would have started his best player in a match of this magnitude.
For United’s sake, one can only hope they resolve it soon.
