Ben Guest
Peter Schmeichel has drawn on his own personal experiences to suggest that Paul Pogba’s mind is somewhere else following his World Cup triumph this summer.
Pogba was praised for his mature performances for Les Bleus this summer as the French went on to win their second World Cup before the midfielder made himself available for Manchester United’s Premier League opener just three weeks later.
However, during those three weeks, there was much talk about Pogba’s Manchester United future, amid reported interest from Barcelona. United rejected all approaches for their £89 million man, but that hasn’t stopped people from scrutinizing his every movement.
However, United goalkeeping legend and current club ambassador Peter Schmeichel thinks that the midfielder is naturally deflated following the jubilation of his summer exertions in Russia:
“Paul’s come back from the World Cup having won it, he’s come back very early and it’s really difficult,” Schmeichel told talkSPORT.
“I’ve obviously never been all the way to the final but I went to the quarter-final and to come back with very little break, very little holiday after you’ve been on this incredible high – you find yourself in this state that’s been going on for three or four weeks and then it’s gone.
“You completely deflate and to inflate yourself again it just takes time.
“Unfortunately, the football calendar is such that even the guys all the way to the final won’t have much of a break.
“Hopefully later on in the season there is an opportunity to give those players (Paul Pogba is one of them) just a little bit of a breather – it is so difficult, honestly.
“Your mind is somewhere else, you look at the eleven months ahead of you and think, ‘This is the steepest mountain’ and at some point you need to just get away from it. Hopefully he will get that.”