A Jose Mourinho team talk to his Tottenham Hotspur players has revealed how he truly views Manchester United star Paul Pogba.
The pair had a difficult relationship while together at Old Trafford for two and a half seasons, despite Pogba having become Mourinho's marquee signing when he arrived at United in 2016. There were reports of a rift shortly before Mourinho's December 2018 exit, to be replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But the new Amazon Prime documentary 'All or Nothing' charting Tottenham's 2019/20 season has given an indication of how much Mourinho admires Pogba. It shows the Portuguese giving a dressing room talk to his Spurs squad before their clash with United in June - the first game back after the coronavirus pandemic paused football, which was drawn 1-1.
Mourinho instructed his players to press Pogba and revealed his admiration for the Frenchman's passing ability. Pogba came on as a second half substitute in the game and won the penalty from which Bruno Fernandes levelled the scored.
"I think, for sure, sooner or later Pogba is coming," Mourinho said at half-time, as revealed by the documentary. "And every time Pogba has the ball, he will have the vision, he will have the quality of pass.
"So I can imagine Pogba from a position like that [deep right of midfield] to get the ball and to make a beautiful pass here for Marcus Rashford to go.
"So Pogba will improve the quality of passing, so we need to press him. And we need to control what is far from him.
"They want to press all the time. You need to measure the risk, don’t make mistakes, don’t attract the pressure.
"One thing is to play short – one pass, another pass and then we go – another thing is pass here, pass here, pass there because you are attracting the pressure. There is a lot of space to counter-attack and to kill them."
