Seemingly doing a tour of Europe speaking about his brother, Mathias Pogba been a good barometer of how things have changed at Manchester United since José Mourinho got sacked.
It doesn’t take a footballing genius to see the difference on the pitch, even if you put results to one side, and Solskjaer’s willingness to play a rather fluid front three, prioritising the use of quick and technical players on the counter-attack, has been great to watch.
One forward who has suffered in all this, however, is Romelu Lukaku, who has lost the role of almost undisputed starter he had under Mourinho, having to watch Marcus Rashford from the bench most weeks.
Despite this, he still has a role to play, as he showed against Arsenal in the FA Cup, even if it might be a rather unconventional one.
Yet, when speaking to Canal+ in France over the weekend, the Belgium international didn’t seem too bothered.
He said: “It’s different. A lot more positive. People are smiling. At the moment, everything is going well, and we have to continue like this. We’re enjoying it.”
As for Paul Pogba, who appears to have taken his game to another level under Solskjaer, Lukaku was delighted for his friend.
He explained: “We tell him at training, Paul is haaaaappy, and then he laughs. At the moment, everyone is playing at their level. That’s what’s good. Paul, Marcus, even myself, when I play, I try and bring something to the team, Anthony… The competitive mindset is returning in every player.
“You see it at training when we do mini games, 6 vs 6, 8 vs 8, you can see the players are wanting to prove themselves to the manager because they want to take their chance, but the most important remains the team. That’s what is going to help us to return where we belong.”
The best thing for Manchester United fans… he said all of that with the biggest grin on his face.
