'Jose-Pogba rift could divide dressing room'

The World Cup winner was left out of Manchester United's squad who were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Frank Lampard's Derby on Tuesday night, just hours after being told he would never captain the club again. 

Speaking to 'Sky Sports', Mido admitted Mourinho could isolate half of the 'Red Devils' team if the situation is not resolved soon. 

"If you saw Mourinho's first comments on Pogba after the World Cup you can understand a little bit the type of relationship they have. 

"The first thing he said was 'the reason Pogba did really well for the national team was because it was a short time so it's easy to focus, but now he needs to do that in a full season'.

"As a player you would expect your manager to be more supportive if you win a major tournament. The World Cup is the biggest thing you could ever win. You can smell from last season that the relationship has not been great.

"But Mourinho has played him in every game, he bought him in the first place for massive money and he made him vice-captain.

"So Mourinho tried to get everything right with Pogba because he knows if he loses him, he loses 40 per cent of the dressing room. Pogba has a big effect on the younger players, he's close to Lingard and all the young English players.

"They see him as an idol even if he is not much older than them. By losing him he knows he will lose 40 per cent of the dressing room."

Mido, 35, says he has sympathy for the Portuguese, but his old-style management techniques clearly need updating. 

"I feel sorry for Mourinho. I know he has made mistakes and he didn't deal with the media in the best way especially in tough times.

"The way the Chelsea players played in his last seven or eight games there, I'm sure the players wanted him out because straight away after he left they started to play better. Now I can see the same thing happening.

"A big part of it is his fault because he didn't know how to deal with the dressing room at tough times. Sometimes he is dealing with situations in the old school way but players are not the same anymore."