José Mourinho continues bizarre and divisive power-play over Paul Pogba

United manager’s omission of France midfielder from the starting XI suggests relationship is still subject to turbulence



Well, we got there in the end. Grudgingly, belatedly and against the manager’s better judgment. But with 17 minutes gone in this Champions League first leg, on a breezy, boisterous night in Seville, José Mourinho found himself forced by circumstance and bad luck into playing his most talented midfielder in his favourite position.
It is, of course, important not to be drawn too deeply into another Mourinho psychodrama. On a scale of one to Ramos the current half-glimpsed friction with Paul Pogba is hardly likely to rate a top-10 mention in the all-time annals of toxic José-dom.
Plus, Mourinho was correct to suggest after this 0-0 draw that the return leg at Old Trafford will be an entirely different occasion; and that this was a good result, albeit on the back of another choked and sputtering performance as United were pushed back repeatedly by an increasingly assertive Sevilla team.
But something odd is clearly stirring here, a friction between manager and star player that seems to reflect Mourinho’s own wider struggle at United, a club where the basic idea of what football is supposed to look like has always seemed an odd fit with the manager’s own furiously guarded, cussedly Mourinho-shaped notion of how to win.









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