Chapter 254: Master Level and Great Disappointment

Mourinho saw Pogba's poor performance, but he couldn't replace Pogba now because there was no player in the team who could replace Pogba.

As a French international and one of the most creative midfielders, Pogba still has many merits, but his excellent performance is based on a good personal mood.

Perhaps affected by the poor performance in the first half, he was not excited enough in the second half, making it difficult for him to play his best.

During the halftime break, Mourinho deliberately put aside his prejudices and encouraged Pogba alone, hoping that he could take on greater responsibilities and lead Manchester United to equalize the score or even overtake.

However, judging from the first five minutes of the second half, Pogba's performance was still stagnant.

Lingard, who came on as a substitute, showed a good performance. His cut-in long shot forced Mignolet to make a wonderful save, so that a cry of surprise rang out over Anfield.

In addition to Pogba's sluggish performance, Martial and the team's top scorer Lukaku performed worse than expected before the game.

Mourinho was thinking, should we make adjustments to these two positions as soon as possible?

Rashford can replace Lukaku, and Ashley Young can replace Martial. What makes Mourinho hesitate is that it is still early. If he uses up the three substitutions early, the next game will definitely be very passive.

Liverpool has not made any substitutions yet, and it is obvious that they want to keep the same in the face of changes.

Five minutes later in the second half, in the 55th minute, Pogba's long pass in the midfield was not passed well, and was caught by Mignolet. Liverpool switched from defense to offense. Matic received a yellow card for defending Li Qing, and Herrera's attention was then focused on Li Qing. Pogba, Phil Jones and Smalling also consciously approached Li Qing.

Li Qing did not raise his hand to ask for the ball. Mignolet threw the ball to Mane with a hand throw, and the latter handed it to Firmino, the transfer station.

It was not until then that the Manchester United defenders realized that Liverpool's attack was not through Li Qing, but was organized by Firmino.

Firmino got the ball and turned 180 degrees to avoid Pogba's steal, then passed the ball to Salah who was rushing in from the right.

Liverpool's attack did not go through Li Qing this time, but the threat was no less than Li Qing's participation. Salah took the ball from the right and broke through to the penalty area. His left foot shot from the inside of the far corner was quite threatening.

The football drew a beautiful arc in the air, and Manchester United coach Mourinho's heart was in his throat. Fortunately, goalkeeper De Gea stood up and flew sideways to hit the ball out of the baseline, leaving Liverpool with only a corner kick.

"wowoowowoooo——"

Anfield Stadium was filled with exclamations.

If De Gea reacted a little slower, Salah's shot could help Liverpool expand the score to three goals.

Mourinho, who was still in shock, ran to the sidelines and pulled left-back Damian to give him instructions.

Henderson's corner kick did not find his teammates and was headed out by Smalling. Moreno, who was guarding the front of the penalty area, directly shot the ball without stopping.

Affected by his personal technical ability, his volley shot directly fired a cannon, which was equivalent to helping Manchester United to clear the siege.

Salah's counterattack with the ball posed a great threat to Manchester United, and Manchester United's subsequent defense became a regional joint defense.

In the 63rd minute, Liverpool and Manchester United made substitutions at the same time. Manchester United replaced Martial with Rashford, and Liverpool replaced Mane with Emre Can.

Emre Can appeared in the midfield, Li Qing moved to the familiar right, and Salah, who was in good form in this game, came to the left.

Mourinho frowned, realizing that the team's next defense would definitely have problems. Li Qing came to the familiar right, which meant that he could break through unscrupulously.

But then again, the team is now two goals behind. If they don't strengthen their offense, they can only wait for death.

Time passed by second by second, which also meant that there was less and less time left for Manchester United to equalize the score, so they could only pin their hopes on their team scoring first.

Rashford is obviously in better condition than Martial, but Rashford does not have the skillful footwork of Martial, but the closest shot for Manchester United to score came from Rashford!

In the 67th minute, Rashford suddenly accelerated when scoring on the left, but Arnold did not keep up, allowing Rashford to enter the penalty area close to the bottom line, and the penalty area suddenly became panic.

After attracting enough defensive attention, he made an inverted triangle pass, and Lukaku used his body to block the position and completed a shot, but Van Dijk fell to the ground and blocked it in time, blocking the ball back.

As luck would have it, the rebounded football rolled forward and inserted into Pogba at the top of the penalty area. In front of him, there was no defensive player, and even goalkeeper Mignolet subconsciously fell to the ground to block Lukaku's shot, which means that Liverpool's goal is now unguarded.

Pogba stepped forward with his left foot, stood in the penalty area, and quickly followed up with his right foot to kick the ball.

It was unknown whether it was affected by Wijnaldum’s tackle, but Pogba’s shot from the edge of the penalty area somehow went high…

“Goooo…”

Andy Gray of Sky TV was ready to cheer for Pogba’s goal, but the ball flew to the second tier of the KOP stands, causing the home team’s fans to burst into laughter: “hahahhahaaaa——”

Pogba, who missed a great opportunity, neither held his head in regret nor half-knelt on the grass. Instead, he looked down at the shooting location, stepped on it twice with his right foot, frowned and shook his head repeatedly, giving people the impression that the shot was a cannon and it was the grass that was to blame.

People who have played football have experienced similar behaviors. After a cannon or an outrageous shot, they often do not feel regretful, but frown and look for the trouble of the shooting location.

How could Mourinho not see that Pogba was in poor condition?

What does it have to do with the grass?

But he couldn't express his dissatisfaction with Pogba in front of fans all over the world, so he just pursed his lips and shook his head repeatedly.

"Paul Pogba's performance was really bad."

Martin Taylor, the commentator of Sky TV, shook his head and said, "But I give him 100 points for his expression. He obviously didn't control his footwork well, but it seemed that it was the problem of Anfield.

Lukaku, Rashford, Matic and others were very depressed. They did everything they could, but Pogba made a mistake in the simplest move...

Manchester United fans in the audience held their heads in depression and couldn't come back to their senses for a while.

They really didn't expect Pogba to fire a cannon directly from that position...

Pogba, who has a master's level, kicked the ball away in the face of a nearly empty goal, which immediately became a bad performance!