Pogba and Firmino shouldn't be social media shamed

Anubhav Roda 16:33 09/02/2017
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  • Prolific Pogba: The Frenchman enjoys posting on social media.

    Social media has taken the world by storm. People love sharing crazy moments over social platforms and the bug has bitten football stars as well, many of whom are not shy when posting content about their lives.

    Fans seem to be divided about this, with many seeing it as a great way to connect players and supporters but others are angered by the light hearted nature of players’ posts – particularly if their team has just lost.

    Take the recently emoji-d Paul Pobga for example. The Frenchman posted a video of him and Jesse Lingaard practicing a new celebration a couple of weeks ago, filmed at Manchester United’s training ground.  The Instagram post read: “Having fun with bro [sic] new celebration”.

    Former United defender Rio Ferdinand – himself a long-time social media advocate – was among those unimpressed by the post, stating: “I’ve just seen a video of the lads dancing in the changing room. I’m all for having a bit of fun on social media and stuff. But not when you’re sixth in the league, and you’re not in the Champions League positions and you’re fighting.

    “You haven’t won anything yet. Until you’ve won something you can’t go out and do stuff like that…I’ve dug out Arsenal players for doing stuff like this before and it would be wrong of me to not talk about the United players. I’d want to keep myself out of the radar a little bit until I get to that point.

    “I’m all for having fun and I think part of Pogba’s appeal especially is that he is a happy free spirit. I wouldn’t want to take that away from him. But I think there’s a time and getting the balance right. If that comes out when you’ve won a cup final I’d be the first to be pushing it out all over the place.”

    A number of fans also waded in and to make matters worse, Pogba and Co drew 0-0 against Hull the next day.

    It’s easy to understand Ferdinand’s point of view but perhaps some fun on social media is actually just the respite players need when things are going badly.

    When the heat is on and the outlook negative, a bit of good humour can be just the tonic to change the mood of a player and dressing room.

    Having fun with my bro new celebration 🤔😏😜@jesselingard @tfosumensah51 #happy #blessed #pp

    A video posted by Paul Labile Pogba (@paulpogba) on

    Roberto Firmino was also given a hard time recently, though he must have known he would risk the ire of supporters by posting a picture of a party on social media after Liverpool’s shock away defeat to Hull last month.

    Reds fans were furious that the player could so easily enjoy himself given the club’s wretched 2017 form – which has included exits from both the FA Cup and EFL Cup.

    But is there really any correlation between him attending a party and how he performs on the pitch? The Brazilian has been one of Liverpool’s most consistent players this season and has certainly put in the hard yards on the pitch.

    Firmino missed two gilt-edged chances against Chelsea but his work rate against Hull was there for all to see, covering plenty of ground and tracking back regularly.

    He’s a professional and of course the defeat would have hurt him, but perhaps what he and his team-mates needed was to forget about the pressure of a poor run of results for a few hours and try to get their heads in a positive space.

    Yes, these players have responsibilities and they would certainly make their own lives easier if they didn’t post as frequently on social media. But they are also only human; these are young lads in their late teens or early 20s who happen to be footballers.

    Let’s stop placing them on such precarious pedestals, from which the inevitable fallout is always going to be painful.

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