United's record buy bids to end underwhelming season on the up

LONDON - Following a season of fits and starts, Paul Pogba will be expected to deliver the goods when Manchester United tackles Ajax in the Europa League final on Wednesday (02:45 on Thursda, Beijing time).

Much like his team, Pogba has shown only fleeting flickers of excellence since his world-record $116 million return to United from Juventus last year.

With Jose Mourinho's side needing to beat Ajax to qualify for the Champions League, Pogba has a chance to salvage both his club's season and silence his own critics.

"When you pay nearly 90 million pounds for someone, you would expect them to blow your mind away at times on the pitch," former England striker Alan Shearer wrote in The Sun recently.

"But there have not been many times - if any this season - when you have watched the former Juventus midfielder and thought, 'Wow!'"

United's showdown with Peter Bosz's precocious Ajax team at Stockholm's Friends Arena follows a difficult period for Pogba.

The 24-year-old France midfielder recently spent time on the sidelines with what Mourinho described as muscle fatigue.

Reports suggested he is being treated for a hamstring problem that sidelined him for three weeks in late March.

It emerged recently that world governing body FIFA is investigating Pogba's switch from Juventus amid reports his agent, Mino Raiola, made around $50 million on the deal.

Also, Pogba recently lost his father, Fassou Antoine, following a long illness. After a period of compassionate leave, Pogba returned to the starting XI against Crystal Palace on Sunday, contributing a goal and an assist as United closed its league campaign with a 2-0 win.

He created the opener for 21-year-old Josh Harrop with a fine outside-of-the-boot pass and scored United's second before being withdrawn at half time with the Ajax match in mind.

Pogba celebrated his goal by pointing to the sky above Old Trafford and later posted on social media: "My goal is for my Pap."

The strike was Pogba's first in the Premier League since he headed in an 86th-minute winner in a 2-1 home victory over Middlesbrough on New Year's Eve.

He briefly found some good form around this period, scoring three goals and supplying three assists in 10 league matches, and picked up a League Cup winner's medal in February.

However, prior to Sunday's game against Palace, he had not played a part in a league goal in 2017.

In the Europa League knockout phase, it has been Pogba's fellow offseason signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, as well as young striker Marcus Rashford, who have typically carried the fight.

Jose happy

But Mourinho continues to express satisfaction with Pogba's contributions, singling out his display on a difficult pitch in United's 1-1 draw at Russian side Rostov in the Europa League last 16.

"The way he played in Rostov was really amazing," the United manager told Omnisport.

"He had little matches where the performance was not so good, but normally the performance is related to the team.

"So when the team was very good, he was very good. When the team didn't perform so well, he didn't perform so well.

"If his transfer fee was half of it, everybody would say 'What a buy' or 'He's playing more than good'.

"But everybody expects performances according to that huge transfer fee and that brings pressure and that brings sometimes unfair analysis."

Agence France-Presse

Five players to watch in Europa League final

 

Sergio Romero (manchester United)

Usually the deputy to David de Gea, Argentina international goalkeeper Romero has shown himself to be a more than capable standin for the Spaniard during United's Europa League campaign. The former Sampdoria star has played 11 games to De Gea's three in the competition and proved effective in their narrow 2-1 aggregate win over Celta Vigo in the semifinals. The 30-year-old continued that good form in his most recent appearance, saving a penalty from Manolo Gabbiadini to keep a clean sheet in a stalemate at Southampton.

 

Davy Klaassen (Ajax)

At 24, captain Klaassen makes for an unlikely elder statesman on Peter Bosz's youthful Ajax team. A graduate of the Dutch side's famed youth academy and a Netherlands international, Klaassen is a box-to-box midfielder who has scored a career-best 21 goals for the Amsterdam giant this term. He was the architect of Ajax's stunning quarterfinal win over Bundesliga team Schalke, his two first-leg goals laying the foundations for a 4-3 aggregate success. Klaassen has been linked with a move to United in the past but is now being touted for a Premier League switch to Everton.

 

Henrikh Mkhitaryan (manchester United)

Armenian speedster Mkhitaryan did not make his Europa League bow for United until its fourth group game, but he has since become something of a lucky charm. The 28-year-old's five goals in the tournament to date include key strikes in knockoutphase games at Saint-Etienne, Rostov and Anderlecht. Substituted at half time on his underwhelming full United debut, a 2-1 loss at home to Manchester City in September, the former Borussia Dortmund star has bounced back to become a firm fan favorite at Old Trafford.

 

Bertrand Traore (Ajax)

Yet to make the grade with parent club Chelsea, Traore joined Ajax on loan last August, having previously spent two years working under the Amsterdam club's coach Peter Bosz during a loan spell at another Eredivisie side, Vitesse Arnhem. The 21-year-old Burkina Faso forward expressed disappointment at being farmed out on loan again and made a slow start to life at Amsterdam Arena. But the tricky wide player has come to life in the Europa League, notably scoring a brace as part of a man-of-the match performance in a 4-1 semifinal first-leg win over French club Lyon.

 

Marcus Rashford (manchester United)

An injury sustained by Anthony Martial prior to United's Europa League clash with Danish club FC Midtjylland last season gave Rashford his big chance and the tournament continues to be kind to him. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's knee injury paved the way for the pacy 19-year-old England striker into Jose Mourinho's starting XI and he has proved decisive in the knockout phase. Rashford scored a smartly taken extra-time winner against Anderlecht in the quarterfinals and netted a valuable away goal with a fine freekick at Celta Vigo in the last four.