Jose Mourinho has assured Paul Pogba he can keep on taking penalties – but warned the midfielder that goalkeepers have found him out.
Pogba’s exaggerated run up of 27 steps saw him miss from the spot for the second time this season in Manchester United’s 2-1 win against Everton.
He converted from the rebound, but admitted himself he was lucky as the ball fell invitingly into his path from Jordan Pickford’s save.
Mourinho believes the World Cup winner must now change his technique, but plans to stick with the 25-year-old as his first choice penalty taker.
“The thing I like is the desire to take it,” he said. “Let me choose the words, I don’t want to be punished. I don’t like Mickey Mouses, fragile, afraid to go, ‘I don’t take penalties.’
“I like the player that is ‘I want to take it.’
“Paul, can he improve? I think he can. The goalkeepers know his running, they don’t move and they are waiting for his decision so he has to learn from that, but for me the most important thing is he wants to go again.”
Pogba agrees it’s time to change his style.
“It’s true I was lucky, but the most important thing is the ball went in and I scored the goal,” he said. “It was good for us, good for me, after we carried on we had other chances, most important was the win today.”
Explaining his run up, he added: “I always try to destabilise the keeper, I always shoot like this, and that’s how I know how to take penalties. But maybe I practice to change it because the goalkeepers are starting to know my steps now. The most important thing is when the ball goes in.”
