COMMENT: Not Leo Messi. Nor Cristiano Ronaldo. As he showed against Wolves, Paul Pogba can do things with a football unlike anyone in the game. The problem is, how effective is it...?

It was all there in front of us. Laid out over the 90 minutes. Need to know why some inside Manchester United are desperate to keep hold of Pogba? He gave you your answer. But also, if you wanted reason why others are so eager to cut their losses? Again, it smacked you in the face.

First, the bleedin' obvious. The goal. Joao Moutinho's equaliser. This was Pogba's fault. 100 per cent of it. In the middle of the pitch, with his back to goal, rather than play the percentage pass, he chose to turn - and had his pocket picked. The rest was predictable - including the manner in which he sauntered back at barely three quarter pace after losing possession. Moutinho had the space - and time - to measure his drive to cancel out Fred's first-half opener. From Leicester City to Burnley, Pogba has lost the ball in dangerous areas of the pitch, only to be rescued by teammates. But Saturday against Wolves, his luck ran out.

Jose Mourinho, the United manager, discussed the goal in the post-match - but was careful not to name the culprit: "We know they don't give you the time to have the ball, to turn, to take two touches. You don't have too much of that so you concede in a situation that is even harder to accept. But that is one goal you have conceded and you have 90 minutes to show a different attitude and I think we have to do better."

So that was the bad. Though there's more to pull apart. But when the reviews came in, it was all five-star, man-of-the-match stuff. And overall, you can understand the praise.

As this column has argued before, Pogba is more Gazza, Paul Gascoigne, than your typical box-to-box midfielder. And at times against Wolves, he was Gazza - and even more. Those crazy slalom runs, bouncing off tackles, beating three, four - and at one stage right in front of his manager - five Wolves tacklers. It was Gazza in his pomp. But then, collecting from deep, he'd pull off passes no-one, not Messi, Ronaldo nor Gazza could achieve. Slinging the ball left to right, or vice-versa, with just a whip of his right foot. It was spectacular. But the question begs: was it effective?

Romelu Lukaku is getting it in the neck today. As is Alexis Sanchez. But how much did Pogba's performance contribute to United's strikers being so ineffective? Over the 90 minutes, the Pogba enigma was rolled out. As much as you can argue his talent is best utilised closer to the opposition goal, you can understand Mourinho playing him as a roaming midfielder. With a long-range passing ability like no other, he can play as a quarterback. But how useful is this passing range for a player of Alexis' type? Does spraying a Hollywood pass 30 yards sideways make the most of the pace and running off the ball Alexis does through a game?

There were countless times Alexis made not one, nor two, but three different darts to create space for Pogba to play him in, only for the Frenchman to sit on the ball before making a decision. And that's where the rubber meets the road. If United's game, as it did on Saturday, is to be played through Pogba, is he capable of making the most of the talent in front of him? For all those wonderful, raking passes of his, Pogba isn't one to play through the lines. You'd be hard-pressed to recall one decent pass through the opposition defence this season from the Frenchman. Not an assist. Just a chance. It just isn't in Pogba's game.

"Let's not dispute his talent for a second," so said former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira of Pogba just before the World Cup. "I was not a bad midfielder but I never had Pogba's fluency or range of technique."

And the Nice coach is right. But he sells himself short if he's arguing Pogba has the more effective game. The strength of Vieira wasn't just his combative style, but his movement. His incredible ability to get the ball, press forward, bounce a pass off a teammate - while still moving - and eat up a third of the pitch before the opposition have recovered. That was Arsene Wenger's Arsenal at their best. Moving the ball - and themselves - at pace. Always going forward. And it was driven by Vieira.

But that's not in Pogba's game. Well, not at the moment. Unlike Vieira, Pogba doesn't do dummy runs. The United man is beneath being a decoy. If he makes a run and the ball doesn't come to him, the arms are up, the head is down and the sauntering returns. Mourinho wants United to play through Pogba. But as he showed against Wolves, he doesn't have the snap in his work off and on the ball to bring the best from his teammates. He's simply not busy. It's a game to suit Serie A or even LaLiga, but not the pace of the Premier League.

Against Wolves, we saw the best of Pogba. The long-range passing. The skill in possession. Ability-wise, he was the best on the pitch. But for all that, it still wasn't enough. It wasn't effective.

He has it all. And he could be anything. But Pogba needs to find what tools are best for those around him. Otherwise, for United and their No6, days like Saturday are going to keep happening.