Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has said that he saw better players dropped during his time with Manchester United than Paul Pogba.
Pogba was omitted from the Manchester United squad to take on Huddersfield in the FA Cup last weekend, while he came off the bench for his side’s Champions League trip to Seville on Wednesday, and Neville says that he should not take offence to his exclusion, but rather use his benching as motivation.
“It’s a tough one for Pogba to take because he’s been left out of a big match, but I was at United for 20 years and saw players left out of matches sometimes – players who were probably better than Paul Pogba,” Neville told Goal.
“He shouldn’t take it as an offence, he should knuckle down as all great players and great characters do when they get dropped, to fight harder and make their way into the team.
“Over the last 10-15 years you think of Wayne Rooney who’s been dropped, he was one of the greatest players United have had. Other players, Nemanja Vidic at times, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, myself, all players who have played 400, 500, 600 games for the club have been dropped.
“There’s no given you’re going to play in the team, everyone has to accept it’s going to come to them and you’re going to be dropped and that can be at different parts of your career.”
21-year-old academy graduate Scott McTominay was preferred in midfield for United against Sevilla, with Mourinho claiming that he does not give out his ‘trust for free’ when asked about the confidence he places in young players.
“I don’t give trust for free,” Mourinho said. “It is the other way round. I don’t think it’s about the manager trusting the player, it is up to the player to make the manager trust him, as simple as that. Sometimes it looks like we have to give everything to the players and they give nothing back to us.
“I don’t think that way. The confidence and trust I show towards Scott, he earned it since day one, since he came to the first-team training sessions, step by step, with a lot to learn.
“Of course he will have bad matches and make mistakes and be on the bench and not be selected but I know when I want him to play, I know the kind of mentality, the player I am developing. I know the qualities that will make him a really good player.”
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