Solskjaer wants influential Pogba amid Madrid links

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants Paul Pogba to be influential at Old Trafford as the Manchester United star continues to be linked with LaLiga giants Real Madrid.

Zinedine Zidane has made no secret of his appreciation for Pogba, who said it would be a “dream” to play for the Real Madrid head coach during the international break.

Pogba and his United team-mates struggled in an underwhelming 2-1 Premier League victory over Watford on Saturday – Solskjaer’s first match since being appointed manager on a permanent basis.

And amid Madrid’s interest, Solskjaer praised Pogba as he outlined his plans for the France World Cup winner in Manchester.

“We want Paul to be both on and off the ball a good player for us,” Solskjaer said.

“We want him to be influential with the way we play. Sometimes that means up as an eight into the box, sometimes to control the game, drop down deeper.

“Against Watford he had to drop down to get a hold of the ball. Every single game is going to be different until the end of the season.

“We haven’t really nailed down one way of playing. We’ve got three or four different ways of playing. That’s the beauty of Paul – that he can do both.”

“We can improve on that one.”

Ole joined us on #MUTV after yesterday’s game… pic.twitter.com/F0oOm25bNx

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 31, 2019

Solskjaer also responded to former boss Louis van Gaal’s claims that United have been guilty of “park-the-bus tactics” under the Norwegian.

“LVG is entitled to his opinion,” Solskjaer said. “We’ve been looking at games. Some games we’ve pressed really high and won the ball up there and dominated. 

“He’s probably talking more about the PSG game [the second leg of the Champions League last 16, which United won 3-1 in Paris], which was a game that we had to defend really well in the circumstances and counter-attack.

“It’s about where you win the ball. You want to defend to win the ball to go forward. You have to win the ball to attack and for me there’s two ways. 

“Can you attack quickly like we did [against Watford], why not? As long as your intention is, when you win the ball, to attack.”