Paul Pogba’s mind remains “somewhere else”, says Peter Schmeichel, with Manchester United needing to be patient as they wait on the midfielder to produce his best form.
The Red Devils were expecting big things from an £89 million ($114m) asset on the back of his World Cup-winning heroics with France.
Jose Mourinho has challenged the 25-year-old to reproduce his international performance levels on a domestic stage, but is still waiting on that level of consistency.
Schmeichel says that process will take time, with Pogba working his way back to full mental and physical sharpness after an emotional summer with his country.
The legendary United goalkeeper told talkSPORT: “Paul’s come back from the World Cup having won it, he’s come back very early and it’s really difficult,.
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“I’ve obviously never been all the way to the final but I went to the quarter-final and to come back with very little break, very little holiday after you’ve been on this incredible high – you find yourself in this state that’s been going on for three or four weeks and then it’s gone.
“You completely deflate and to inflate yourself again it just takes time.
“Unfortunately, the football calendar is such that even the guys all the way to the final won’t have much of a break.
“Hopefully later on in the season there is an opportunity to give those players just a little bit of a breather – it is so difficult, honestly.
“Your mind is somewhere else, you look at the 11 months ahead of you and think, ‘This is the steepest mountain’ and at some point you need to just get away from it.
“Hopefully he will get that.”
Pogba has figured in all four of United’s Premier League fixtures in the 2018-19 campaign, netting two goals.
He also took the captain’s armband at the start of the season, with Mourinho making that show of faith amid reports of a breakdown in the working relationship between manager and star midfielder at Old Trafford.
