It was settled halfway through the season that Paul Pogba does not function to the best of his abilities in a 2-man midfield. As a result, Manchester United decided to go with a trifecta of midfielders.
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Scott McTominay was deployed as the third midfielder at first. Subsequently, Herrera claimed it with a couple of good performances though Fellaini and Carrick were used sparingly.
However, United still looked starved of creativity in the centre. Even with Herrera and Matic in the team, Pogba often had to drop back and gather the ball and do the greater part of bringing the ball out from the back all by himself, particularly during counter-attacks.
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However, with Fred, who has proved that he is good both offensively and defensively, Pogba will have his work cut out. Both players have similar styles going forward. They both love to take on defenders and this will help them read each other's game better and help facilitate a better understanding of each other.
Pogba can also make those darting runs into the final third which have proved to be menacing without having to bear the burden of being the only player capable of working the ball out of the defensive third.
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Matic will play sweeper, right in front of the defensive line. Fred will play a bit ahead of him and Pogba will be further forward and that's where he put in some of his best performances from in the 2017-18 campaign.
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About the author
Shambhu Ajith
Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.
For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.
Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.