Pogba has been below-par in his last three performances for United, meandering through losses to Barcelona, Everton and Manchester City. Some blame this on his mood swings.
The 26-year-old has copped a lot of criticism for his perceived lethargy in testing periods of games because of his known talent, which was on show last summer when France won the 2018 World Cup.
Former Red Devils boss Meulensteen, who coached Pogba during his youth development before the midfielder left for Juventus, believes the Frenchman’s impact may be directly correlated to his surrounding team-mates.
“He clearly struggles to dictate the game if he doesn’t have good enough players around him,” Meulensteen told Training Ground Guru.
“With Juventus and France he did extremely well, but had players like Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal with him in Turin, and N’Golo Kante for France.
“The pace of the game is also much slower in Italy than it is in the Premier League, where it’s constant action and you have to be urgent both in and out of possession.
“If you look at some of Pogba’s best games for United, they’ve been alongside Ander Herrera. The two of them are complementary.
“Herrera gives Pogba the platform to get in the box and play those searching passes, because he keeps the balance.
“He’s able to stop the fires, is mobile, can pick the right passes and has really good game understanding.
“I don’t think the other central midfielders we’ve seen have been able to provide that same platform.”
Herrera has missed the last six games through injury but returned to training last week and may, after all, stay at the club after reportedly agreeing terms to join Paris Saint-Germain for free in the summer.
In the Spaniard’s absence, Fred and Scott McTominay have been given more game time, with the latter particularly endearing himself to the Old Trafford faithful.
“Paul has obviously suffered a bit from the lack of quality around him,” Meulensteen added.
“When Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] took over people got carried away – ‘we’ve got the old United back’ – but after that PSG away win in the Champions League (on March 6) everything has been turned on its head.
“He suffers from this languid style, he’s a heavy mover. In England especially, the fans want to say: ‘He might not have been great today but he gave it everything.’
“Paul has that languid style and needs to learn to play with more of a spring in his step. The first thing that’s expected of anyone is attitude, energy and work-rate.
“Scott McTominay doesn’t have the same technical quality as Pogba, but he is a hard-working lad, so the fans have warmed to him.”