Jose wants Pogba to 'keep a certain level'

Jose Mourinho has challenged Paul Pogba to maintain a level of consistency after the Frenchman’s Man-of-the-Match displays in two of Manchester United’s last three games.

Pogba showed his class in the Reds’ midweek win at Bournemouth during an 80-minute outing that Mourinho feels was even more impressive than his dominant second-half performance in the Manchester derby comeback.

“I told him after Manchester City that I'm not expecting him to be the Man of the Match every match,” Mourinho said at his press conference on Friday, ahead of the Emirates FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur.

“I'm not expecting him to be phenomenal every match, because that is really, really difficult, but to keep a certain level, that's the challenge. That's obvious.

“I think he was phenomenal against Manchester City. I think he was not good against West Bromwich Albion and again I think he was phenomenal against Bournemouth.

“If, against Manchester City, you have the two goals that people can say ‘wow, super decisive’, I think he played even better against Bournemouth since minute one. He was even more consistent, even more in control of the game. I think he was really, really good.”

Pogba will be hoping for another chance to exert his influence in Saturday's big game against Mauricio Pochettino's side at Wembley.

The Premier League’s second and fourth-placed teams meet at the national stadium at 17:15 BST, with United aiming to take another big step to winning the competition for the second time in three years – and extend Spurs’ trophy-less run to 11 seasons in the process.

“I don't know their objectives, I don't know the way they think their season,” said Jose, when asked about Tottenham’s barren spell. “I don't really know what their targets are. That's not my job, to think about it.

“I have to think about them as the team they are when I play against them. It's the third time we play them this season, so it's the third time I go deep on the analysing of them. And it's so easy to say – a fantastic football team.”