Peter Schmeichel Drops Scathing Criticism On Paul Pogba's Performance After Manchester United Draw

Peter Schmeichel has claimed that Paul Pogba was “completely” out of the match against Burnley, despite scoring the opener for Manchester United in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw.

Pogba, who is out of contract at the end of the season, made his long-awaited return for United in his side’s shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Middlesbrough.

The 28-year-old French midfielder endured a lengthy spell on the sideline after he picked up an injury while on international duty last November.

Fred was ruled out of action for the Burnley clash after testing positive for COVID-19, with Pogba stepping into a midfield partnership with Scott McTominay.

Luke Shaw picked out an unmarked Pogba inside the Burnley box, with the 2018 World Cup winner slotting home with a superb side-footed finish in the first half.

However, Sean Dyche’s men rallied back and responded within minutes into the second half, with Wout Weghorst playing Jay Rodriguez through for the equaliser.

Despite scoring United’s opener at Turf Moor, Pogba and Co have been slammed by Schmeichel for lacking urgency in their attempts to break the deadlock near the end.

“I said before the game Pogba played fantastic on Friday night,” he told Premier League Productions.

“If Pogba plays like that, we want to keep him, we desperately want to keep him.

“But he was completely out of the game today and you can’t have players doing that.

“That’s not good enough for Man United. At Man United, you’ve got to have a very, very high low-level and at a minimum you’ve got to perform to that.

“You’ve got to have this type of urgency and understanding of when you need to push forward to get the goal you need.

“In the last 20 minutes, the way Man United played was all in the same tempo and all in the same pattern.

“There were no pressure balls into Burnley’s box, there were no questions being asked.

“Having played in the team, having understood what was required of you, that’s one of the more disappointing things for me to see that that has gone out of it. I think most of this is with the players. It’s not the coaches or the managers.”

United’s 1-1 draw with Burnley could prove to be a costly blow to Ralf Rangnick’s bid to secure a top-four finish for the Red Devils this season.

The Red Devils remain fifth in the Premier League table and are one point adrift of fourth-place West Ham.

But Arsenal, Tottenham and Wolves all have matches in hand and could leapfrog United in the table.

Rangnick’s men will return to Premier League action on Saturday when they host Southampton at Old Trafford, with kick-off scheduled for 12:30pm.