Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker has hailed Paul Pogba’s performance as ‘his best ever’ for the Old Trafford club, and called upon manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to find a permanent place for the French international in his team.
Pogba was inspirational on Saturday, providing four assists as United ran riot, defeating Leeds United 5-1 to set the season off on the right tone.
And Parker, who described the showing as Pogba’s ‘best’ since arriving at the club, waxed lyrical about the display.
“One of the passes was just horrible for the defender, he must have felt he was bobbing in the water without a life jacket,” Parker said of the assist for Mason Greenwood’s goal. “It was a great performance by Pogba and United’s best for 18 months.”
Parker, speaking exclusively on our Talking Devils podcast, explained how he thinks Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have a tactical dilemma in the coming weeks. “You have to have Paul on the field and Ole is going to have to think about how he works that midfield to get him in,” he said. “A performance like that is a big statement. United fans will want to see performances and football like that again.”
“When you play like that you can’t wait to get playing again, especially at the start of the season. It will be Southampton’s first home game, there will be players wanting to make impressions. It will be tough but you have to win the battle to win the war, that’s how you have to treat away games. United will want to quieten the crowd and earn the right to do so.”
Raphael Varane was announced as a United player before kick-off on Saturday, whilst Jadon Sancho had to wait until the last fifteen minutes to get a run out. Parker believes that both should start on Sunday against Southampton.
“Without a doubt,” he says. “You’ve got to do it. Away fans are going to use what happened over the summer against him (Jadon) but he’s going to have to grow into that and say to himself that it doesn’t bother him. Get him on the park and there will be one hundred percent belief in the team. You’d make two changes – Varane for Lindelof and Sancho for Daniel James.”
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