Pogba: I don´t feel extra responsibility

Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba has stressed that he does not feel any extra responsibility following the departures of Arturo Vidal, Carlos Tevez and Andrea Pirlo during the close-season.

The France international is arguably the Serie A champions’ star player after the exit of the aforementioned trio, yet he feels it is not up to him individually to show Juventus the way, insisting it is a team effort more than anything else.

Pogba had been struggling to find his best form in the opening weeks of the season, but had a hand in both of Juventus’ goals as they beat Genoa 2-0 on Sunday.

“With Carlos, Arturo and Andrea we could rely on individual moments of brilliance. Now we play more as a team,” Pogba was quoted as saying on the club’s official website.

The 22-year-old took over the number 10 shirt from Tevez following the latter’s return to Boca Juniors, thus following in the footsteps of compatriot Michel Platini, and he is determined to honour the jersey.

“Taking on the number 10 is to follow in the footsteps of Michel Platini and several other Juventus greats. It’s very important that I honour the shirt on the pitch, the club has shown a lot of faith in me,” he added.

“I need to keep working on my game, both in terms of build-up play and my runs off the ball. I need to put in strong performances both for the benefit of myself and that of the side.”

Juventus’ win over Genoa was their first in Serie A this campaign and Pogba has urged his team-mates to keep it up in the weeks to come.

“We haven’t achieved anything yet. Until today we had just one point in the table, now we’ve four. We’re happy with the win, but we need to keep picking up results.

“We’re just concentrating on ourselves right now. There’s a long way to go between now and May.”