Paul Pogba Accused Of “Living In His Own Little Fantasy World” - Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes has accused Manchester United’s Paul Pogba of “living in his own little fantasy world”.

France international Pogba’s future continues to be up in the air, amid interest from Real Madrid.

Los Blancos boss Zinedine Zidane has spoken about the 26-year-old and a potential switch to the Santiago Bernabeu.

A move to Spain would bring to an end Pogba’s second spell at Old Trafford, in which he has at times shown majestic brilliance, but which has all too often been mired in inconsistency
Despite that, Scholes, whose coming out of retirement under Sir Alex Ferguson partially led to Pogba’s first United exit, believes that he is a world class talent who United can ill-afford to lose.

“There’s confusion in midfield. Is Pogba going to stay or go?” Scholes told Premier League Productions. “In years gone by, United have lost top players and it didn’t really affect them. You think of Roy Keane going, David Beckham, Cristiano [Ronaldo] going, [Ruud] van Nistelrooy. All top, top players leaving the club.

“But you always had a squad of players that it didn’t really matter, you didn’t really miss them that much.

“We all know Paul, we talk about potential, but he’s 26 years of age, he’s got to start producing it week in week out. You’re going to be losing a player who you know can be world class.

“Can you talk about getting better players next to him? Who is out there that’s going to improve him?”

Scholes believes that Pogba needs to show greater understanding of his own game and be given greater direction from manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over his role, if he’s to ever show his very best on a regular basis.

And the ex-England international feels that Pogba has gone backwards since his £89million switch from Juventus.

“If he’s got a manager that is strong enough with him, you go back to [Max] Allegri at Juventus and the players he was with there, he did a job in that team.

"He worked his absolute backside off, which he should be doing every week.

“You get the feeling now that he has come to this club and thinks he’s the big fish, he needs to be the one showing off every week, he’s doing things he doesn’t need to be doing on a football pitch.

“You see his stud roll, he needs to become more clever about what he’s doing.

“His strengths are running, passing the ball, getting into the box, scoring goals, assisting goals. Once he starts stud rolling and trying to beat men, it’s not his game, he becomes easy to play against.

“If he passes the ball forward and runs, there’s nobody in the world who can stay with him.

“It’s exactly what he did at Juventus but he had strong characters around him, he had [Giorgio] Chiellini, [Andrea] Pirlo, great players. He almost did their running for them.

“Now he thinks everybody has got to do his work for him and it’s going against him.

“We know what he can do and we know what he’s capable of. As soon as he complicates his game, he’s no good to your team whatsoever.

“Allegri was a strong manager for him and you would have expected [Jose] Mourinho to be. He left him out and didn’t have that much of an effect on him.

“He thinks he’s the big player, the one that needs to show people he’s the best in the world and he doesn’t.

“He just needs to play simple, he’s got team-mates around him who should appreciate him and do appreciate him.

“He’s a good lad, as a young player he wanted to learn, he was desperate to learn. I just don’t think he’s getting the maturity, the sense is not coming to him.

“At Juventus we saw the best midfield player in the world, without a shadow of a doubt.

"I think it’s because he had a strong manager, a top manager behind him and great players. Not just decent players like he’s got now, he had special players to guide him and to lead him. I don’t think United have that.

“He could be a player who needs a Bryan Robson or a Roy Keane next to him just to give him a little rollicking every now and then.

"If he doesn’t get that he just carries on in his own little fantasy world, thinking he’s the best."
Pogba has two years left on his contract at United, with the option for a 12-month extension in the club's favour.

And amid criticism, he was still named in the PFA Team of the Year.

“He’s part of a team, it’s not about him," continued Scholes. "It’s not just about me doing tricks and being on YouTube and showing Real Madrid or Barcelona how good I am.

“It’s about being part of a team at Manchester United. That’s why it’s so difficult to say do you lose him.

“Is there anybody with the ability at Manchester United to replace him? At this point I don’t think there is.”