Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has had a light jab at Paul Pogba for his ridiculously long run up prior to his penalty goal against Young Boys in United’s Champions League opener on Wednesday.
Pogba opened the scoring for Jose Mourinho’s side in the 35th minute with a stunning individual goal before doubling the visitors advantage just before half-time after a dubious penalty for handball.
Pogba has scored two penalties already this season (Leicester City and Brighton) but took a total of nine seconds to hit the ball from the time he took his first step.
Ferdinand praised Pogba for his quality in the first-half but took a slight cut off him for his extended run up.
Paul Pogba with the longest run up in penalty history…#YBMUTD pic.twitter.com/wklpAicBOb
— Jordan Meyer (@JordanMeyer1994) September 19, 2018
“When you run up like that you better score,” said Ferdinand on BT Sport. “You get in the changing room after and you’ll hear it.”
Ferdinand believes Pogba can learn from Cristiano Ronaldo’s evolution as a player, if he follows the same steps, i.e. cutting out the unnecessary tricks and focussing on becoming more effective with the ball.
“Cristiano came as what we called a showpony, all the stepovers, looking good for the fans. He left the best player in the world, who lived and died by the end product. Goals and assists,” Ferdinand told ESPN earlier this week.
“But that’s down to intelligence, [Ronaldo] worked it out, actually, ‘that’s good that the people love me for that, but what’s going to get me there, to the top of the mountain. I need to adjust my game.’ And he left as the best player in the world.
“So Paul Pogba can look at that as something to learn from there as well. What do I really need to do to make myself the best midfielder on this planet?” Ferdinand said.
“Listen, he’s got an ego, that’s not hard to see on social media, this boy’s got an ego, wants to be looked at and talked about as the best player. There’s a hunger and desire for that, with that comes a work ethic.”
