Manchester United boss has claimed that Paul Pogba should not have been awarded France’s second goal in their 2-1 win against Australia at the World Cup on Saturday. Nonetheless, the united midfielder was praised by his club manager, who applauded his player’s role as a box-to-box midfielder in the build-up to the goal. With the scores evenly poised at 1-1 going into the latter stages of the game, Pogba’s lobbed effort deflected off Australia full-back Aziz Behich and the crossbar to creep over the goalline.
“For me, it’s not about the goal. I think it’s an own goal, but it’s the action,” Mourinho told reporters. “It’s the determination of making it happen. The majority of French players were too comfortable or not wanting to risk too much, or not confident enough to make things happen. Kylian Mbappe didn’t have a great game, nor Ousmane Dembele or Antoine Griezmann.
“The midfield were very positional, Paul didn’t interfere a lot in the game, but then this action is the action of a number eight. That’s what people used to call the box-to-box midfielders. And in this case, that was the action of an attacking part of box-to-box. It’s a pity it wasn’t a clean shot to make it a brilliant goal, but it got them the three points.” Pogba has 10 goals from 55 France appearances.