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Solskjaer does not cast players aside like Mourinho, says Pogba

Premier League - Manchester United v Southampton

(Reuters) - Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has said his former Old Trafford manager Jose Mourinho was known for ignoring players once he benched them, which was in stark contrast to his current boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who never casts players aside.

Mourinho was sacked by United in December 2018 after their worst start to a season for 28 years and was replaced by Solskjaer, who was appointed as caretaker manager before he was given the job full-time after an upturn in results.

Mourinho's final months at United were underlined by his breakdown in relationships with players such as Pogba, who he also stripped of the vice-captaincy.

"What I have now with Ole is different, he wouldn't go against the players," Pogba told Sky Sports.

"Maybe Ole wouldn't pick them, but it's not like he puts them on the side like they don't exist anymore. That's the difference between Mourinho and Ole.

"Once I had a great relationship with Mourinho, everybody saw that. And the next day you don't know what happened. That's the strange thing I had with Mourinho and I cannot explain to you because even I don't know."

Pogba also had a dig at Mourinho after the Portuguese responded to Solskjaer's comments following Tottenham Hotspur's 3-1 home loss to United in the Premier League over the weekend.

Mourinho vented his frustration over criticism of Spurs forward Son Heung-min who Solskjaer accused of conning the referee. The United boss said: "If that was my son... he doesn't get food because that's embarrassing".

Mourinho had reacted by saying Son was lucky his father was a "better person than Ole".

"We won the game, he lost the game and he doesn't want to speak about the game," Pogba told Sky, adding that Solskjaer and United did not need to get into a war of words with Mourinho.

"He wants to speak about the dad of someone, that's what he does. Everybody knows him, it's very Mourinho."

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)