‘Brilliant, brilliant’: Manchester United legend hails performance by this new signing vs Southampton

Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has said that Paul Pogba’s debut at Old Trafford against Southampton on Friday night should leave the fans purring.

Under the circumstances, Giggs says that Pogba played superbly. He is quoted in The Manchester Evening News as saying:

“He (Pogba) could be a Roy Keane, Bryan Robson or Steven Gerrard, someone who can do everything,” said Giggs after the 23-year-old Frenchman’s first appearance since his move from Juventus.

“The biggest compliment I can give him is that I was watching that game and watching Paul Pogba and I wasn’t thinking of £89m,”

“Yes sometimes things won’t come off, but he’s trying things and he’s releasing himself, he’s all over the pitch, he wants to get on the ball and it was a brilliant, brilliant performance when you take into consideration he’s only trained for a week, the price tag and he’s still only 23.

“If he keeps playing like that, like I said the price tag won’t be mentioned.”

The 23-year-old French international has only been training for ten days since signing for Manchester United and few expected him to last the course.

But, with a full 90 minutes under his belt, we can hope for even more of an impact from Pogba in the coming weeks.

But even in his full debut at Old Trafford it was easy to see why United were so keen to part with their money. Pogba is a larger than life character and he ticks so many boxes.

Physically he can match anyone. Add genuine pace and athleticism.

But when you then shovel on a liberal amount of that elastic, balletic dexterity you have a very special player indeed.

Pogba seems able to think and to move his body quicker than the opponent and consequently slaloms out of tight situations with improbable regularity. As such, he can turn defence into attack in a moment. Catch the opponent unawares and flip the game almost instantaneously. This is a true game-changer.

His presence in midfield gives United speed and cutting edge. On Friday they were noticeably quicker at getting the ball from back to front with real quality and incision.

Pogba is like a quarterback and wide receiver rolled into one. A Yaya Toure in his pomp but with perhaps even more thrust and mobility to his game than the previously supreme Ivorian.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how his career develops at Manchester United but the omens are good based on his much vaunted return to The Theatre of Dreams.