I am probably in the minority that like Pogba starting from a deeper role and my reasoning is fairly simple. The sooner he receives possession, the sooner he can influence the game by roaming forward and finding progressive passes. This has a liberating unseen effect.
Bruno can go into move advanced areas compared to if Fred/McTominay were playing which thereby allows Martial to stay forward as he doesn't need to constantly occupy space in between the lines to provide a passing option or link play. There are defensive trade-offs for this
Pogba is not as robust as any of the other options and when paired with Matic we can be left exposed in defensive transition and/or be forced to sit off more rather than press. However, last season our primary issue was picking up points against smaller sides and Pogba deeper
Helps achieving that. This season has proved why looking at goals conceded and concluding that the individual components of that collective are great is lazy analysis. A possible reason is great defensive individuals another is potentially the requirement to cover for their
Weaknesses through systemic means. I.e playing a Fred/McTominay style double pivot. Dropping Pogba in bigger games wouldn't be something I'm against as we lack the build-up structure to control games on the ball against big sides. Although there are important morale factors there
To consider which might make that an impossibility. Overall, he is still our best player, coaching and defensive personal is the major problem and I think many of the 'Bruno effects' have been misattributed to him rather than Pogba.