Manchester United have pick of three ‘safe progressers’ in summer to do job Paul Pogba could not

Whether Paul Pogba leaves Manchester United at the end of the season or extends his contract is entirely up to him, and let's leave it at that.

However, United need to plan for the summer as if the former is the case. That means first identifying what they believe Pogba brought to the team because it is clear that several managers had different ideas about how he should be used.

Jose Mourinho used him as a number 10 in his statistically best season. In contrast, Solskjaer tried to use him deeper as a box to box player and as a more defensive player in the pivot before eventually throwing him out wide.

It seems the most common role Pogba played was of the deep-lying playmaker, tasked with picking the ball up from the defensive midfielder (a rare sight nowadays) or a defender, turning and then playing the ball forward to progress the play.

This is a waste of Pogba's talents, but he did add his own 'je ne sais quoi', so to speak, regularly, pinging the ball long to find his man perfectly and cutting through defences in the process.

With the chance creation and risk-taking monster that is Bruno Fernandes to make up for losing Pogba's cutting edge, a 'safe progressor' is what United needs. Someone who can reliably keep the play moving forward and doesn't lose the ball in midfield often, which is one criticism you can have of the Frenchman, especially when put under pressure in the pivot.

So let's have a look at three possible options for United to consider (FBref provides all the following statistics):

Fabian Ruiz

If you were to look up the definition 'safe in possession' on Google, you'd just be shown an image of Fabian Ruiz; he's that good with the ball at his feet.

The midfielder has a pass completion of 89.1%, which is