Get unlimited access to this and all Telegraph Sport's exclusive Premier League interviews, insight and analysis for the next 12 months here with our half-price subscription offer - £20.

Whatever you think about Paul Pogba, and it’s likely you will have an opinion, imagine for a moment this Manchester United midfield without him. No, it isn’t pretty, is it? Pogba has nowhere to hide this season for United but, equally, to where will Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turn if the manager’s worst fears are realised at some point in the coming months and the France midfielder succumbs to injury?

No one wants to think in such terms, of course, but managers have to plan for every eventuality and there may come a point this term where Solskjaer and United end up severely regretting their failure to strengthen the midfield during the summer.

For all the talk of the gamble United have taken by not replacing Romelu Lukaku - their best guarantee of goals over the past two seasons - with a proven forward, the biggest oversight is surely the neglect shown to a midfield area that was already weak enough before the departure this year of Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera.