Paul Pogba salutes his penalty.

Is Pogba United's first-choice penalty taker?

Saturday 19 January 2019 18:56

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has addressed the question of which Manchester United player is first choice on penalties after Paul Pogba scored the opener against Brighton & Hove Albion.

During the Norwegian's spell in charge, we have been awarded three penalties and each of them was converted by the player involved in the incident. Jesse Lingard was tripped before firing home against Cardiff City in Ole's opening fixture and Juan Mata kept his nerve from 12 yards after VAR confirmed he was fouled against Reading in the Emirates FA Cup.

Pogba opened the scoring against Brighton when he was shoved by Gaetan Bong inside the box and smashed past David Button in front of the Stretford End.

Jesse Lingard has a word with Paul Pogba before the penalty.

Anthony Martial netted from the spot in the derby against Manchester City back in November, after he was up-ended by Ederson, but Pogba has four penalties to his name since the start of the campaign.

MUTV's Stewart Gardner asked Ole to clarify the situation after the seventh win on the spin and the caretaker boss said: "Paul is the penalty taker but we have got players who want to take penalties and that is the key. If they want to take it, they can argue among themselves but Paul is the nominated one.

"He scores them, which is what matters. I wouldn’t have done it that way. I would have run to the ball and smashed it, but he kept his calm. It took two minutes before he was allowed to take it so that shows how composed he is and I think he enjoys playing football as wll. In front of the Stretford End, so why don’t you just enjoy it?"

Solskjaer scored 126 goals for United during his successful time with the club but none of those strikes came from the spot.

Pogba, meanwhile, is leading marksman for the Reds and the first player to hit double figures, by making it 10 for the campaign with his successful conversion this week. The in-form Frenchman has also matched his best-ever record for strikes in a single league season.

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