Paul Pogba’s first start for Juventus ended in just 24 minutes as the midfielder lasted for just a few minutes on the pitch.
Pogba has been injury-prone for much of this season and the midfielder gave encouragement to the club with a number of cameos in the last few weeks.
He even provided an assist for their game against Sevilla in the Europa League, which prompted Max Allegri to start him in the weekend game against Cremonese.
However, the Frenchman pulled up less than half an hour into the game and some fans and pundits suspect he was not ready to play and Allegri should not have started him in the game.
However, Massimo Pavan says it was important that Allegri started Pogba because Juve had to test his reliability.
He says via Tuttomercatoweb:
“Initially, I thought he had made a mistake, considering the injury, but then I changed my mind. Apparently, he decided to start him to test his reliability. If he had brought him on in the second half in Seville and we went into extra time, he would have risked using up a substitution. Yesterday, the coach needed an answer that unfortunately turned out to be what we all feared.”
Juve FC Says
Pogba showed good signs in the last few weeks and we really cannot blame Allegri for taking a chance on the midfielder.
The manager probably would have subbed him off at half-time or around the hour mark, but Pogba could not even last 30 minutes on the pitch.