Despite it being only August, there's a mini-crisis brewing at Old Trafford as José Mourinho wrestles for power at the club while on-field struggles only highlight the off-field problems.
Daniel Harris joined Monday's OTBAM with United under pressure to beat Tottenham at home later today after losing at Brighton in their last outing.
"I don't understand this yen to blame one particular element of something for something that is lots of people's fault.
"If you look at Paul Pogba's performances for France - the first thing and I can't believe you wouldn't even mention it - is that, look at the players he plays with.
"Of course, you're going to be more inclined to take one for the team when the players ahead of you are Mbappé, Griezmann - when you're at United, the players aren't as good so you're going to be less inclined and you have to do it every week.
"You an take on for the team and play in a more restrained manner for a month to go and win a World Cup, once every four years but, Pogba doesn't put it in. We saw that against Brighton and it's not the first time we saw it.
"The game that sticks out is Southampton at home last season - I think it was a 0-0 draw where Pogba basically didn't cross the half way line in the second half. I don't think that wasn't because he couldn't be arsed - I think it was because he was trying to make a point to Mourinho that he was being wasted being played where he was.
"And, I think that is a fair point that Pogba was making - that's not the best way of making it on the pitch, like that. I'm not defending him for the way that he makes that point or for whatever he's doing but if you've got a player like Paul Pogba at United's team, to stick him in front of the back four, given the less good players in front of him - it just makes no sense.
"It's not getting the best out of your best player - that's the managers job. And, it's the job of the board to give the manager the players he needs that enable him to feel secure that he is able to do that.
"One of the reason's Paul Pogba plays in front of the back four sometimes for United is that Mourinho doesn't rate the back four and he's still using defenders that Fergie had - who probably weren't even good enough then.
"So, as I said, there's plenty of blame to go around - there's no need to be sparing. No one comes out of this looking good - everyone comes out of this looking like a dickhead.
"It doesn't have to be one person's fault and this desire to find one cause for something that's more complicated than that is not something that's wrong with football - it's something that's wrong with lots of other things as well," he added.
Listen to Monday's OTBAM Podcast here:
