Penalty king Pogba named Man of the Match
Paul Pogba was voted Manchester United's Man of the Match after twice scoring from the spot during Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League win over West Ham United.
The Frenchman kept his cool to move one clear of Romelu Lukaku as our top goalscorer in all competitions this season with 16 goals.
The 26-year-old was one of three players nominated for the star-man award, and his two strikes helped secure 49 per cent of the votes cast by fans on our Official App.
Why I changed my penalty technique
Let's hear from our Man of the Match Paul Pogba, who tells us why he decided to change his penalty technique…
David De Gea came a close second with 38 per cent after his exceptional save from Michail Antonio, while Phil Jones garnered the remaining 13 per cent thanks to a solid performance on his return to the Reds’ starting line-up.
Pogba has now scored seven Premier League penalties this season, with just Ruud van Nistelrooy managing to net more in a single campaign.
7 - Only Ruud van Nistelrooy (8 in 2002-03) has scored more penalties in a single Premier League campaign for Man Utd than Paul Pogba (7) this season. Slotted. #MUNWHU pic.twitter.com/kSEfOsjB5t
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 13, 2019
“We wanted to obviously do better and score more goals, but we got the result," said Pogba post-match.
“We had the luck today. Maybe sometimes it's not for us, it's for the other team. But today we had it and we took it.
"Now what we have to think about is the next game."
After missing from 12 yards on a couple of occasions this season, the World Cup winner admitted that he had been working on his spot-kick routine in training with goalkeepers Sergio Romero and Lee Grant.
“I just changed it because I think keepers know how I shoot penalties and I just changed it to make it a little different. The most important thing is it goes in and we get the victory and the three points,” he added.
The opinion of the fans who voted for Pogba was echoed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when the manager spoke to MUTV after the game.
“Paul’s got a great mentality, I don’t think he’s fazed by anything. He’s got a good personality: he loves football and plays it for the right reason,” he said.
“He played a different role today and I thought at times he played really well, but at times we struggled to have a good shape. Paul and Fred did really well in midfield.”
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