How Pogba can start to dominate

With Paul Pogba's responsibilities increased with the captain's armband, we look at what he needs to do to start dominating midfield battles for Manchester United.

Jose Mourinho's side struggled to maintain the dominance of Leicester on the opening day, having less shots than their visitors and enjoying just 46.3 per cent possession, and the visiting fans will be hopeful of more from last year's runners-up when they visit Brighton on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Premier League at 4pm.

We look at the Opta data used to power Sky Sports Six-a-Side to see how Pogba's performance against the Foxes compared to last season and what he needs to improve to match the league's most influential midfielder.

The World Cup winner racked the second highest points tally of 75 Sky Sports Six-a-Side points for his performance, but that was boosted significantly by scoring the opener as he took the penalty-taking duty from Alexis Sanchez.

This surpasses his points average for last season, which stood at 52.5. However, had he not tucked the penalty away, the Frenchman would have recorded a modest 40 points for his display.

The one area he did significantly improve on was making six successful dribbles, whereas he averaged 2.8 per game during the 2017/18 Premier League campaign, when he often operated in a central partnership rather than Friday's three-man midfield.

Pogba featured alongside Andreas Pereira and summer signing Fred, allowing him to be braver on the ball in more advanced areas, similar to his last season at Juventus, when he directly contributed to 20 goals.

However, he failed to create a single chance for his team-mates during the game as United struggled to maintain their stronghold on the game, with Wilfried Ndidi completing more passes, making more successful tackles and creating more chances than the £89m man.

United supporters will be hoping, with a World Cup winners' medal and the captain's armband, that their record signing can rediscover the sort of form seen in Serie A and match their neighbours' main man.

Kevin De Bruyne also operated in a midfield trio for Manchester City last year and managed to balance his defensive responsibilities with getting forward, creating 16 goals and scoring eight in the process, whereas the Frenchman created 10 and scored six respectively.

Most strikingly, De Bruyne created 108 chances last season compared to Pogba's 37, playing a significant part in the champions scoring 38 more times last their their closest rivals.

It was only the ex-Juventus man's first run-out since arriving back from the World Cup, but the travelling contingent will demand an improvement from their side as they visit the Amex Stadium, with Pogba's creativity key to opening up Brighton's backline.

Credit: Skysports.com