Former Manchester United player Henrikh Mkhitaryan believes criticism Paul Pogba previously faced often centred around things that have nothing to do with football.
Mkhitaryan joined the Reds in 2016, arriving at Old Trafford with a lofty reputation after scoring 23 goals in all competitions the season prior for Borussia Dortmund.
The Armenia captain's career in Manchester never hit those heights, though, but Mkhitaryan still won two trophies with United playing under Jose Mourinho before departing in January 2018 as part of the Alexis Sanchez swap deal with Arsenal.
Now playing for Roma, who are set to play United in the Europa League semi-final on Thursday, Mkhitaryan has reflected on his time at the club.
Mkhitaryan said he remains close to his former teammates, namely David de Gea, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Eric Bailly and Paul Pogba, and he also expressed his confusion at the criticism aimed at Pogba.
“It doesn’t matter if you are Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba or someone else. They will see something in you, small details to criticise. When Paul was playing everyone was criticising him for his hairstyle," Mkhitaryan The Athletic.
"I don’t think that has something to do with football, that’s his personal life. If he plays bad, criticise him for his bad performance, not his hairstyle. That’s not good. It has nothing to do with football.
“And you know, some people that don’t know him, some people who haven’t trained with him or played with him they don’t see these kinds of things.
"You have to be in the team, you have to see the way he trains, the way he thinks, the way he suffers and then say if he played good or he played bad.”
