Sometimes inconstant in a club, Paul Pogba knows how to turn into a war machine with the France team when the big international competitions arrive.
The World Cup in Russia will have seen him take more and more weight in the locker room.
At the time of facing Germany for the start of the Euro, the Mancunien seems to have left to resume his good old habits.
From our special correspondent in Munich,
Thousands of kilometers from Clairefontaine, quietly settled on their island-continent far from the tumult of Euro 2021, the Australians had probably not seen Paul Pogba's cartridge coming. Asked at a press conference about the group of death in which the France team fell, the Manchester midfielder seemed to revel in the upcoming fight. “It's Germany direct, it's heavy as they said! There is no Australia, there is no I don't know what… That's the big competition! He smiled, referring to the more affordable group that awaited the Blues in Russia at the time.
If no French players had complained to start with such a choice piece at the aperitif, we had not seen them jump to the ceiling as did the Mancunien during his last visit to conf '.
It must be said that the competition, the Pickaxe has that in the blood.
The observation does not come from us but from Guy Stéphan, assistant to Didier Deschamps, who recently explained in the Figaro that Pogba was “never as good as in a big competition.
"
It does not mean that the other players arrive in thongs at the Euro or the World Cup, just that Pogba needs to feel the adrenaline of big meetings to sublimate himself.
When, over the long period of a championship and a club season, the French may tend to scatter, over a month of competition, the former Juve initiates warrior mode.
"Paul needs to feel loved in order to be confident"
The first to put his finger on it is none other than José Mourinho, his former coach with the Red Devils.
In the aftermath of the 2018 World Cup, while the French was going through a period of less well, the Portuguese displayed his theory in front of the press: “The World Cup format is what best suits a player like Paul.
Why ?
Because he's in a bubble for a month, he can only think about football.
He is permanently with his team, completely isolated from the rest of the world.
During the season, you can have a big game, then a small one that comes right up behind and makes you lose focus a bit.
Like Australia, at random.
Difficult, however, not to perceive, hollow, like an air of reproach in the mouth of the Mou. Basically, Pogba would need to be double locked to give the best of himself. For his former trainer in Le Havre, it is not so much a question of strict framework as of feeling. “To get to know him a little anyway, I can tell you that he's someone who is very emotional, who needs to feel loved in order to be confident, close to his partners and to the staff. But in the France team, he is with his friends, he is really in a bubble of affection and that is what makes him very strong, ”explains Michaël Lebaillif, the director of the pre-training of Le Havre when Pogboum arrived at the age 14.
"Paul is an original in his attitude but he is above all an emotional person who needs to be loved", confirmed Guy Stéphan at
Le Figaro
.
Maybe that's what he missed on the Manchester side to explode as he should have.
This is in any case the opinion of Jean-Luc Arribart, the consultant made in the Premier League on Canal +.
“In Manchester he understood that he was not the player that everyone expected in the first place, he analyzes.
He is coming out of a mixed season, he has been quite injured and in the meantime Bruno Fernandes has taken a prominent place in the field.
And as the team turned out very well without him, he had to redo his hole ”.
In Russia, a leader was born
Quite the opposite of what he saw with Didier Deschamps in the French team, especially since the 2018 World Cup where, according to Guy Stéphan, there was a click.
Installed in his tent contemplating his victorious army, the Breton lays his thoughts down in his Russian notebook: “We are in the final, the group is inhabited by a force, an enormous determination.
Before the match, Paul Pogba spoke in the locker room.
He has been with us since 2013. In Russia, he asserts himself as one of the leaders, which he was not at the beginning.
"
How to forget this other mythical speech, a few minutes from the round of 16 against Argentina, symbol of the new role taken by the Mancunien within the Blues.
Come on, let's go back to it for fun.
“We want to see warriors on the ground tonight. I don't want to go home, tonight I'm not going home. We're still staying at the hotel, we're going to eat that fucking stir-fried pasta again. Today we will end up happy. I want to party tonight. I want everyone today to be dead in the field. Men and warriors, champions. Today we are going to kill these Argentines, Messi or not Messi, we don't give a damn. We're here to win this fucking World Cup. You have to go through this, come on guys! "
A natural leadership, according to Michaël Lebaillif: “As a youngster, we felt that if he was at ease in a group, he could quickly release something powerful. I am not surprised that we relied on him a lot at the World Cup, he is a competitive player, he is able to transcend a group on his own ”. This is what Presnel Kimpembe confirmed to us on Saturday when we asked him the question: “He has this way of doing things which is quite natural to… not to govern, but let's say to address the group at key moments of the competition ".
On the pitch, finally, the former Turinese also enjoys greater freedom than he can experience in the north of England the rest of the season.
"If you put him in too small a framework, he can become frustrated and not give the fullness of what he is capable of doing," reflects his trainer from Le Havre.
During the last World Cup as we saw, he participated a lot in the offensive phases of the Blues.
He is a player who needs freedom, to devour spaces, he has this form of creativity and above average technical quality which can hurt a lot when he is concentrated at 1000% ”.
This should be the case from Tuesday evening against the Mannschaft, which is neither Gijon, nor Valladolid, and nor Australia, we will have understood.
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