Manchester United’s new midfielder Bruno Fernandes has dismissed the criticisms showered on Paul Pogba and said that people expect him to do things like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi do at Juventus and Barcelona respectively.
Bruno further said that with such high expectations people tend to forget all the good works after just one bad match and that Pogba should be given time after he returns from his longstanding injury.
“We can say in football that people normally forget what you do good when you have a mistake. You can do good for 34 games, and one game you do bad and everyone will remember that,” Bruno said as quoted on the official website of Manchester United.
“Paul is coming from a bad moment, because of the situation. When he played also, the club and the team was not good, because the expectations are high for Paul, because Paul is a top player and Manchester United pay a lot for him, and expectations are a lot for him.
“It’s normal when you are in that situation you don’t play like a superstar, because everyone expects from Paul like they expect from [Cristiano] Ronaldo at Juventus or [Lionel] Messi at Barcelona. Everyone expects this from Paul in Manchester, because they know he has the qualities for this. Also this is confidence in Paul. The team, we have a lot of confidence in Paul,” the 25-year-old added.
Earlier, Pogba had expressed his shock over the continuous criticism he has been subjected to despite being out of the field due to injury for the most part of the season.
Former Liverpool captain and manager Graeme Souness has been one of the harshest critics of the French international ever since he joined United from Juventus.
“I didn’t even know who he was, really,” Pogba told the official Manchester United podcast. “I heard he was a great player and stuff like that. I know the face but (not) the name.
“Like I said I’m not someone that watches a lot of (punditry), I watch a lot of football but I don’t stay after the game to listen to what they say about why they did this, or why they did that. I like to focus on football,” the 27-year-old added.