Updated at 18.23
PAUL POGBA IS being tipped to improve further for Manchester United once clear of injury, with Paul Scholes seeing greater freedom bring the best out of him.
The France international had been in impressive form prior to being forced onto the sidelines with a hamstring problem.
No date has been set for his return, with United still hoping that the 24-year-old can avoid the need for surgery.
Whenever he is ready, Scholes believes that the all-action midfielder will continue to benefit from the presence of Nemanja Matic in an ever-improving United team.
The Red Devils legend told reporters at the Premier Futsal tournament in Dubai: “Obviously before his injury you could see United were winning, and winning quite comfortably.
“I think the addition of Matic has helped him and given him that bit of freedom – he’s scored a couple of goals already and a couple of assists.
He’s playing well and hopefully his injury is not as serious as it could be.
“They have been talking possibly about an operation but hopefully that’s not the case and he’ll be back soon.
Last season was tough for him but there was always going to be a settling-in period.
“There were two or three other players along with him who took a little while to settle down.
With Matic coming in this year and the other players a year down the road I think we’ll see the improvement.”
Pogba, who was named United’s Player of the Month for August, has netted two goals and provided two assists this season.
Jose Mourinho has moved to rule out any suggestion that he could be out of action for up to 12 weeks, but it is unclear whether he will be ready for a return after the upcoming international break, with United set to face arch-rivals Liverpool at Anfield on October 14.
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Highly doubt a guy of 27 years of age in a position like outhalf will make any huge addition to the ulster team when he has never played a game in the top division of any league. Surely they’ve an academy outhalf that they’d be better off promoting to the senior panel?
The problem is highlighted by the number of Ulster Youth in the Irish representative teams. 5 in the schools and 0 in the youth. Ulster rugby do not match their aspirations with investment in youth rugby to ‘find’ players such as Tagdh Furlong and SOB. Would rather see the IRFU go further by requiring the provinces to match their investments in foreign players with the same amounts in youth rugby.
I wouldn’t think much of junior team numbers really, of the irish u-19 team that won the world championship, how many can you name? it’s a professional sport and the brutal fact is a lot of those guys won’t break through from underage teams, they need to be a prodigious talent like Bo’D or the colossus that is Donncha O’Callaghan.
He’s played in the NRC. He’ll be fine for the pro 12.
The point of junior teams is to feed senior teams. Without the numbers at junior level there is nothing to come through at senior level. Case in point Munster.
Realistically though Christy, Munster have never had a significant presence in underage teams. I don’t put much stock in u-20 numbers as representative of the talent coming through provinces, mostly because arguably the two best players in this years championship, Zach McCall and Stephen Fitzgerald, came from the two least represented provinces. It’s quality not quantity basically. I’d be much happier to get one Jack O’Donoghue rather than a bunch of lads that’ll never play beyond the AIL, as we see in Leinster.
I’d imagine that the only thing He needs to do to be a permanent starter at 10 for ulster is not miss in front of the posts.
If you want to be trolling Ulster better try the Uafc forum where they might be interested.
I didn’t mean to troll, really, but if Kelly Haimona is the only pro12 kicker with a worse percentage than jackson, you desperately need backup for Pienaar.
Where are you getting your statistics from Eoghan. I assume you are making no allowance for Jackson suffering a bad back injury at the end of last season and being injured for a good part of this season. He has hardly kicked at all.
http://www.pro12rugby.com, look for the longlist of golden boot contenders. You know kicking percentage doesn’t get affected by the number of games he’s played in the season, only the number of kicks he’s hit/missed? Or are you thinking that his injury hampered his more recent performances? never assume. Realistically though when was the last time you saw a senior, capped international miss a kick in front of the post?
I’m talking about literally in front of the posts about ten yards out but thanks for your input as always Quinner.
Again Quinner, Madigan’s kick wasn’t directly in front of the post, ten yards out. He’s on the shortlist actually.