Paul Pogba fills attacking gap as Everton and United show they miss Lukaku

Both these sides have lost their way a little over the festive period, though not to the extent suggested midway through the first half when Wayne Rooney looked up in search of a team-mate to pass to and proceeded to pick out Juan Mata. The Manchester United fans in the Bullens Road stand were singing one of their old songs in Rooney’s honour at the time, yet the Everton captain has been back in blue for several months now and Sam Allardyce was rather hoping his distribution would be a help rather than a hindrance.

Allardyce believes Everton have become more solid over the past month but recognises they are not creative or penetrative enough when in possession. The Everton supporters feel much the same way, worried by a couple of games without a shot on target, while with three draws against mid-table opponents over the past week their Manchester United counterparts must also have feared their season had come to something of a standstill.

With Paul Pogba on this sort of form, they need not have worried. Something else the two sides have in common is that they both miss Romelu Lukaku. Everton have been labouring all season in the absence of a target man and goalscorer up front, while United would almost certainly have been ahead by the interval had not their Belgium striker been injured against Southampton on Saturday. Without Lukaku the visitors looked to Pogba for their main attacking threat, with the midfielder given free rein to get forward as much as possible in the knowledge that Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic would stay back to protect the defence.

In an opening period that was low on quality and excitement, Pogba’s drive and elegant running stood out and when he played a one-two on the edge of the area to cut cleanly through the Everton defence he produced a cutback of such quality it deserved a goal. Unfortunately there was no burly striker waiting in the middle to apply the finishing touch, so the ball just ran harmlessly along the six-yard line until it reached an Everton defender on the opposite side of the area.

Frustratingly for the visitors, almost exactly the same thing happened again towards the end of the first half. This time Anthony Martial played a one-two with Luke Shaw to break into the area, only for another inviting ball played across the face of goal to go begging. Lukaku has his critics and has not always been among the goals this season, though he can generally be relied upon to stand in the right place and give support players something to aim at.

Everton are in the process of trying to fill their striking gap, though in the meantime they could at least welcome back Yannick Bolasie after a long lay‑off with a cruciate injury. While the winger will need a few more games to get back to full fitness, even easing himself back into action he was still too good for Victor Lindelof on several occasions. Had Lukaku still been around he would have enjoyed the steady stream of crosses coming from the left flank, but with Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the bench perhaps only Cenk Tosun could take encouragement from Bolasie’s industry, assuming Besiktas do not intend to price their striker out of Everton’s reach.

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By the second half the home side were beginning to flag, finding themselves pushed back to the edge of their area, and though it was Mata who first gave notice that United meant business with a shot that came back off an upright, it was Pogba’s quality that continued to stand out. The Frenchman put another shot across the face of goal before United took the lead, and it was Pogba’s short but precise pass to the unmarked Martial that brought about the goal. He then brought a sharp save from Jordan Pickford with another determined surge into the area, and when Martial took a turn at supplying a cross from the left following a mistake by Ashley Williams, the United captain got his head to it but could not quite divert the ball goalwards.

It would be wrong to suggest that by the end Pogba was playing Everton on his own, though he did set up Jesse Lingard for a shot that might have brought a second goal slightly earlier but for Pickford saving at full stretch. Yet with Pogba running the game and United playing most of it in Everton’s half José Mourinho was able to keep Marcus Rashford on the bench until the closing stages. That’s quite a luxury for a team just deprived of its main striker.

United may be struggling like everyone else to match the quality at Manchester City’s disposal, but even without Lukaku they had more than enough to account for Everton. A second successive defeat will mark the end of Allardyce’s honeymoon period. The manager is confident he knows where the problems lie; whether he can come up with a remedy is another matter.