Jamie Carragher has backed Paul Pogba to inherit the Manchester United captaincy by the end of the season and believes he’s the club’s ‘most important player’.
The France international has played a vital role in propelling the Red Devils up the Premier League table this season, and their record with and without him in the side is marked.
Of the eight league games he’s played, United have won seven and scored 24 goals.
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Conversely, in the seven games he’s been absent, United have won just four and scored 11.
And with his influence ever growing, Liverpool legend Carragher expects the 24-year-old to replace current club captain Michael Carrick by the end of the season.
‘He’s certainly upped his game two or three levels this season,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘The stats speak for themselves.
‘He probably is Manchester United’s most important player now.
‘I think maybe towards the end of this season or maybe the start of next season… I think he’ll be captain of the club. I would imagine.’
Carragher admitted he was disappointed that the former Juventus midfielder won’t face league leaders Manchester City in the Manchester derby next weekend.
Pogba was sent off for stamping on Hector Bellerin in a 50/50 tackle against Arsenal on Saturday and the former Liverpool centre-half thinks he’ll be a big miss.
‘I’m disappointed that he’s not playing next week,’ Carragher added. ‘I would have loved to have seen how Jose would have used him considering what he’d have been up against with [Kevin] De Bruyne and [David] Silva because I think we saw everything about Pogba yesterday perfectly in that third goal.
‘But also, the deficiencies of Pogba is defensively and how easy it was for Arsenal every time they got the ball to go through this Manchester United team and [David] De Gea just showed again he’s the best goalkeeper in the world.
‘It was far too easy for Arsenal to come through Manchester United at times yesterday – I think that’s sort of what you get with Pogba really when he’s playing in central midfield.
‘I’d have loved to have seen what Jose would have done. He always sets up for the opposition so he’ll be well aware of Silva and De Bruyne and how he can try and stop them next week so it’s a big miss really because that could have been a big head-to-head for the midfield players.’
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