Answering Juventus' prayers: Pogba lives up to superstar billing vs. City

Before kick-off at the Etihad, Paul Pogba stood with his eyes closed and his palms turned up to the sky in silent prayer.

He does it before every game, but on this night the image felt poignant. After scraping together one point from their first three Serie A games, Juventus would surely require divine intervention to avoid defeat at Manchester City.

The Premier League leaders do not have the most distinguished track record in this competition, but they did have good reasons to expect this season would be different. Off to a perfect start domestically, they were yet to even concede a goal this season.

As one Italian newspaper noted, Manuel Pellegrini’s side had splashed out €203 million on new players this summer, while Juventus’ annual turnover was only €328 million – and that in a year when their income was boosted significantly by a run to the Champions League final.

City might have spent even more if Pogba himself had been receptive to their advances. They were one of a number of clubs to sound out the midfielder’s agent, Mino Raiola, during the transfer window, sparking rumours of an €80-million move. Pogba, though, was not eager to leave a club where he felt settled and able to produce his best football in the year leading up to a European Championship.

Nor were Juventus in any mood to sell.

The Bianconeri had parted ways with Carlos Tevez and Andrea Pirlo, and would soon pack Arturo Vidal off to Bayern Munich as well. Sound financial logic underpinned the latter decision. The Chilean, at 28, had likely achieved his peak value. Pogba, by contrast, was only likely to be worth more in the future.

But this was about more than just money. Juventus believed Pogba was ready to step up and become a leader, as well as the new focal point for their midfield.

That confidence was shared by the player. Informed during an interview with Soccer 360 that Pirlo believed he would become the best footballer on the planet, Pogba replied: "I do want to be the best midfield player in the world, so it is not a pressure, it is an encouragement."

His approach throughout the summer indicated how serious he was.

Pogba was, quite literally, the first player to show up for Juventus’ preseason training camp and quick to put himself forward to wear the club’s vacant No. 10 shirt. Pogba was similarly unfazed by Giorgio Chiellini’s suggestion that he would have to score the goals that Vidal used to get from midfield, telling reporters: "Why not? I can do it."

He felt ready to put this team on his shoulders. Juventus’ first three Serie A fixtures suggested otherwise. Pogba failed to impose himself in defeats to Udinese and Roma, or a limp 1-1 draw at home to Chievo - in which he was a second-half substitute,

To an extent, he was a victim of circumstance. Juventus took until transfer deadline day to sign Hernanes, the player Massimiliano Allegri needed to operate behind the attack in his preferred 4-3-1-2, forcing him instead to fall back on a 3-5-2 formation that no longer suits this group of players. Injuries to Sami Khedira and Claudio Marchisio, furthermore, left Pogba with inexperienced team-mates alongside.

But we expect great players to drag their teams through adversity. Pogba is an admirer of Yaya Toure, saying in the past that he has sought to model his game after the City player. Few who saw Juventus’ league games this season could have disagreed with Pellegrini’s pre-game assertion that the Frenchman had a long way to go before he would be worthy of comparison to his idol.

This, though, was an occasion on which Pogba would outshine Toure and many other players besides. He was at the heart of the action from the outset in Manchester, extending a leg to dispossess Samir Nasri one moment and planting a header into the City net the next – only to find out his goal had been disallowed after Alvaro Morata strayed offside.

Pogba was not discouraged. He continued to hustle, harry and get forward at every opportunity. By full-time the stats would show that he had touched the ball more times than any other Juventus player, but it was a single pass of his that changed the entire evening.

A goal down with half an hour left to play, Juventus might easily have succumbed to the same self-doubts that have dogged their start to the Serie A season. Pogba himself could have let his head drop after slicing a volley badly wide from the edge of the six-yard box.

Instead, he kept his eyes up to see Mario Mandzukic make a run off the shoulder of Eliaquim Mangala. Pogba’s chip over the top of City’s defence was perfection. Mandzukic prodded past Joe Hart and suddenly the game took on a different complexion.

Eleven minutes later, Morata gave the visitors a spectacular winner.

An evening that might have served to reinforce the sense of doom around Juventus had instead become one that might just kick-start their season.

Pogba had begun this game by saying a prayer, but he finished it by answering those of his team’s supporters.