Pogba needs better players around him at Man Utd, says Keane

Paul Pogba is being held back at Manchester United by those players around him, says club legend Roy Keane.

The France international midfielder, who has been selected in Didier Deschamps' side for World Cup 2018, has regularly courted criticism since moving to the club in the summer of 2016 for a record fee of €105 million (£89m/$123m).

Indeed, ahead of the summer's competition in Russia, Denmark boss Age Hareide, whose side will face France, has suggested that the Parisian only "cares about his hair".

Keane, who spent 12 years of his career anchoring the Old Trafford side in a similar role to Pogba, says the 25-year-old is being made to look bad by his club-mates.

“I like him, I think he’s a good player, a good kid. He probably needs better help around him, good influences around the training ground,” the Irishman said.

“I was the luckiest man on the planet when I was a player, I always had good lads around me, senior players who led by example. Pogba probably doesn’t have that at United.”

The former Ireland international, meanwhile, admitted that the former Juventus man has scope for improvement, but he’ll be acutely aware of that himself.

“He’s a good player. Would he feel he could have had a better season? Probably,” he added. “Usually the good players are quite critical of themselves. When you play for Man United and you don’t win a trophy you probably would be critical of yourself.”

United had a relatively disappointing campaign as they finished a distant second to Manchester City in the Premier League and suffered the disappointment of losing 1-0 to Chelsea in the FA Cup final.