Former Manchester United players Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand have said that the Paul Pogba and Jose Mourinho situation should have been handled differently by both the player and the United manager.
Mourinho was filmed during a training session earlier this week telling off Pogba for releasing a video on his Instagram account during Manchester United’s penalty shootout League Cup loss to Derby County on Tuesday.
Pogba was reprimanded by Mourinho at training, the only part of training that broadcasters were entitled to film, and Ferdinand believes that Pogba may have acted as a spokesperson for the team when he questioned the Portuguese manager’s tactics following a 1-1 draw with Wolves last weekend.
"It's different to what me and Scholes would have known."
"It's been a blame game!" @rioferdy5 is NOT HAPPY with what is going on Man Utd…
He still cares a lot! pic.twitter.com/iSYVJ9vO81
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 29, 2018
“It’s different to what I knew and what Paul would have known,” said Ferdinand on BT Sport.
“Everything [is] in the media but it’s been a bit of a blame game this week if you are going to talk in that context. You look at Paul Pogba; should he have spoke out about the team tactics? Maybe not.
“He will probably look back in a couple of years about his agent speaking out so much on his behalf. It’s probably something he will look to try and shut down quicker next time because he antagonises the fans who he needs on his side and creates doubts among fans and among the hierachy within the club but beyond that I don’t think he’s done anything wrong with regards to off the field stuff.
“But then I think the manager maybe could have handled things differently in terms of giving confidence to players and making players feel a real part of the team.
“Coming out and publicly dressing people down… I think in today’s day and age it’s different to our age. I think you could do that maybe with players in our era but this era is a different kettle of fish you’re dealing with. You’ve got to understand the people you’re dealing with and can they deal with that.
“It’s different. The amount of times the manager has done that, does that give confidence to the team? Does that give a belief in what he’s doing from the team?
“I think if Paul Pogba is speaking out about anything, or he is speaking to the manager about anything, I don’t think he does it from a selfish point of view because he’s not that type of boy. I think he’s doing it because he’s a spokesperson for his team.
“I don’t think it’s just him. I don’t think things like this should get out. The things that we saw during the week with the cameras at the training ground, I don’t think that should happen.
“The manager knows the cameras are there. We’ve been in changing rooms where there have been fightst, hings thrown, people arguing etc. and you know the cameras are there. Shut up. You get on with it.”
"We usually see managers relieved of their duties for this."
"The manager needs to dictate and lead from the top!" @rioferdy5 thinks Paul Pogba is being a mouthpiece for the Man Utd squad… 👀 pic.twitter.com/rX6Pgi6RJ6
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 29, 2018
Scholes agreed with Ferdinand that any disputes between Pogba and Mourinho should have been kept behind closed doors but that Mourinho is in the precarious position where it’s hard to drop the French international because of his ability.
“I think a lot of the stuff he’s saying should be happening behind closed doors. I thought Paul was wrong in what he said, questioning tactics, doing his Instagram thing, I thought he was wrong and he should have been reprimanded for that. He was, but the problem was he was reprimanded in front of the cameras.
“In our day everything happened in a dressing room. If Paul is the spokesperson for the team, which he probably shouldn’t be because he’s not the captain.
“I think that’s the captain’s job to go and do that. If he’s not happy with the tactics you go and knock on the door and tell him, I don’t think you come out in an interview and do that.
“But given all of that, we know Paul is Manchester United’s best player. He’s got the most ability in the team and he needs to be playing, that’s the problem.
“If he has fallen out with the manager, there’s no way the manager is going to leave him out because who does he turn to?”
