Pogba, who returned to Old Trafford for a world-record £89.3m fee from Juventus last month, had an afternoon to forget in the 2-1 defeat to Man City on Saturday.
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A brace against the Danes proved just the start, scoring another double against Arsenal on his Premier League bow and the victor at Manchester City, before netting on his England debut, going to Euro 2016 and netting a hat-trick on his maiden England Under-21s appearance.
The process of taking positives from Saturday’s derby loss is simultaneously a short and a painful one, like yanking a scab, but we can probably all agree that Marcus Rashford did himself no harm at all by strutting onto the pitch as if he owned the place.
“Look, I have two or three players in the first half who if I know what was going to happen I would not play them”.
United, meanwhile, will begin life in the Europa League on Thursday when they face Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
“The problem was we needed to be more aggressive to win the first and second balls but we didn’t”.
Guardiola said: “For the people asking me to win the Champions League here now, at Manchester City – I really have to be a good coach. That is the only thing I can say”, he later told reporters when asked about the 18-year-old. “The idea is going into every game and wanting to play out from the back and we did that [against United]”.
“I think the way we try to play now is very enjoyable, especially for the attacking players, because we try to play nice football, the way we want to play”, he said. I am going to tell you something.
“I think that’s where he played for Juventus, either in a diamond, tucked in on the left, or in a 3-5-2 – like when he had Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio giving him that freedom, because defensively he is poor”.
And the Spaniard, making an assessment that might strike a nerve with Mourinho, said: “Until now, in the Premier League it has been okay – but to compete against the best clubs in Europe, in this moment with the way we are playing, we are not able to”.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that he did not share a drink with Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho after the Manchester derby according to The Sun.
Ibrahimovic’s arrival has helped alleviate pressure that could have started to build on Rashford after his stunning breakthrough season.
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De Bruyne almost made it 3-1 to City when he burst through on goal in the second-half, but his shot cannoned off the inside of David De Gea’s near post and scurried across the goal-line to safety.
