After the painful home defeat against Burnley at the beginning of the year, Manchester United have gone on to enjoy the best form of any team in the league since. Not only are we chasing down top four now, but possibly third place.
The turnaround in form coincided with signing Bruno Fernandes and, more recently, the return of Paul Pogba who had missed most of the season with injury.
Pogba has spoken to the official site about what it means to him to be back on the pitch.
Just being back training, touching the ball and doing what I love is amazing; I missed it so much. You realise when you’re out for a long time how much you really enjoy playing football and how much you love it. So obviously I’m really, really happy and so blessed to be back and be fully fit now, and I’m enjoying being back with the team.
feel great, I feel much, much better now. I’ve been training well and they [the club] have been looking after me very well. I’ve been doing some extra work and treatment on my ankle and the rest of my body. And my team-mates as well, they’ve helped me to come back and feel confident. It’s like I never left, the guys still trust in me and always believe in me and that’s helped me a lot as well.
Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have now both scored 20 goals in all competitions, while Mason Greenwood is on 15.
Pogba has spoken about how much the team has improved and how enjoyable it is for him to watch.
You can tell that the team is improving a lot. We play more as a team than we did before, we enjoy it even more, we defend together, we attack together, and this team is stronger as well. The players who are on the bench or who don’t play every time, when they come on they help the team so the mentality is good and is right. All this together has put us where we are today.
From behind I just enjoy it. I’m enjoying just watching Bruno, Rashford, Martial and Mason, who all played the last game, and seeing them score goals. You just keep applauding, it’s beautiful… they make me enjoy football every time!
As well though there is the defensive work that people don’t talk about – they do it. The pressing – they do it… that’s what you maybe don’t see that much. Football fans who know football see that and that’s the difference that we have and it’s great to see them at their best. I think it’s about the mentality – the attacking and defending that they do every time – that helps us, it helps the midfielders and the defenders and obviously the talent speaks for itself – the goals and the action and the football, everything.
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