Manchester United-focused journalist and author Andy Mitten appeared on a recent edition of The Athletic’s ‘Talk of the Devils’ podcast, where he discussed the Red Devils’ potential midfield partnership of Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes.
Fernandes joined Manchester United in the January transfer window and it may be fair to say that he has made quite an impressive start to life at Old Trafford, bagging two goals and three assists in his five Premier League appearances thus far. However, the Portuguese international is yet to feature in the Red Devils’ midfield alongside World Cup winner Pogba.
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The Frenchman has been struggling with injury throughout the 2019/20 campaign and did not feature in a single game for United between the time that Fernandes signed for the club and when the Premier League was postponed in March.
However, back in late May, United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirmed to MUTV, via Sky Sports, that Pogba has been back in training to prepare for the Premier League’s restart, which may lead some Manchester United fans to think about the prospect of seeing Pogba and Fernandes lining up alongside one another in United’s midfield.
Mitten discussed this possibility during his recent appearance on The Athletic’s Talk of the Devils podcast, where he said: “I think there’s an issue, [which] is, where does Pogba play? Does he play as a ‘10’, or does he play behind?
“I’m told that if you look at Pogba’s stats, he doesn’t actually pass the ball forward anything like as much as Fernandes, where his first reaction – and we saw this from his very first game against Wolves at Old Trafford – [is to] get the ball moving forward.
“So, you might think that Fernandes should be in the more advanced role, but Pogba has been playing as a ‘10’ in training and they’ve been switching it around a lot as well, so you can see that Ole Gunnar does think they can play together because they’re both very good players and great players can play together, but these are the issues, the little nubs that they’ve got to work through.”
Do you think that Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes can play together?OF COURSE THEY CAN
I DON'T THINK SO
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TIF Thoughts…
As per WhoScored, United have predominantly lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape this season, and if they stick with this formation, then one issue for the Red Devils’ coaching staff to consider might be how they can fit both Pogba and Fernandes into that shape effectively, as Mitten explained.
However, the journalist’s comments do make it sound as though the Red Devils’ manager intends to make use of the opportunity to finally play these two midfielders together, which could be exciting news for Manchester United supporters.