Premier League: Mistakes only underline how important Paul Pogba is to Manchester United

If Paul Pogba ever needed a reminder of how much is expected of him at Manchester United he could have found it running around the pitch during Sunday’s clash with Liverpool. His name, in hashtag form, adorned the advertising hoardings all game long, illustrating how the 23-year-old has very quickly become the man around which everything revolves at Old Trafford, even when that has a negative effect.

Against Liverpool Pogba certainly had a negative effect, giving away the penalty that led to the Reds’ opener and generally enduring a turgid first half. The Frenchman settled himself after the break, but the damage had already been done. The £89 million man had left his mark on English football’s biggest club game, although not in the way he had hoped.

[‘Pogba is useless and not worth the money’]

But this is the trade-off that comes with Pogba. Man Utd shouldn’t want it any other way. United need him to be a risk-taker. That’s why they signed him, to take the kind of risks no other player in their squad would. As is the nature of a risk, sometimes they backfire.

Under David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal, United became far too safe, too insipid, as a team. That’s why while Pogba isn’t worth £89 million on the open market, even taking into account current market inflation, he is worth that much to United. He was the final, most important piece of a midfield puzzle left unsolved since Paul Scholes hung up his long-passing, hard-tackling boots.

Players in Pogba’s mould are hard to find. This is another reason United deemed him so valuable, because had they missed out on him they would have struggled badly to find another option who could perform the same role. They would have ended up with yet another stop-gap solution lacking the necessary skill set.

So while Pogba’s flamboyance makes him an easy target for some, with his Twitter emoji just another illustration of a player way too quick to puff out his chest and dab, it’s this quality that makes him so great, especially for a young man of just 23. If if he is this influential at this age, imagine how predominant he’ll be when he reaches fulfilment.

Of course, United primarily need Pogba to take risks in the final third, heading towards the opposition goal, not defending his own goal as was the case against Liverpool. He will learn from the mistakes made on Sunday, but whatever he does he mustn’t curb his inherent propensity for taking risks. Jose Mourinho would do well to remind him of this.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic might well whisper this in the ear of his apparent protege. The Swede has built an entire image on taking risks, gambling, ‘daring to Zlatan’, and so if Pogba needs a precedent to follow in reassuring himself of his own identity he needn’t look too far.

“Pressure is something I enjoy,” Ibrahimovic said after the draw with Liverpool. ”I don’t know Paul personally to be able to answer that for him. But I think he likes it also because, without pressure, we would not be on our toes at the top level.

“If you want to play at the top, pressure is 24 hours, and if you play well or better the pressure becomes even greater. So it’s something that we learn from and something we have to handle because we belong to the top, Paul belongs to the top absolutely and the pressure will be there.”

It might be true that Pogba must learn when to take risks when the pressure is on, like it was against Liverpool on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean he should stop taking them. This is a quality intrinsic to Pogba’s personality and character. To compromise that would be to compromise him not just as a player but as a person too. And United need Pogba the person almost as much as they need Pogba the player.

So while Pogba’s match against Liverpool certainly didn’t go to plan, there is no existential question to answer. He’ll rue that his worst performance of the season came when most eyes were on him, but this is the collateral damage Pogba, one of football’s most compelling talents, carries. Don’t take his Twitter emoji from him just yet.