Jose Mourinho admitted that the World Cup provided Paul Pogba with the "perfect habitat" for his game.

While Pogba has been uneven in his play with Manchester United, Mourinho believes that is due to the player and not the system.

"I don't think it's about us getting the best out of him, it's about him giving the best he has to give," Mourinho said.

"I think the World Cup is the perfect habitat for a player like him to give [their] best," Mourinho added.

"Why? Because it's closed for a month, where he can only think about football. Where he's with his team on the training camp, completely isolated from the external world, where they focus just on football, where the dimensions of the game can only motivate.

"During a season, you can have a big match then a smaller match, then one even smaller, then you can lose your focus, you can lose your concentration, then comes a big match again.

"In the World Cup, the direction of the emotion, of the responsibility, of the big decisions is always growing up.

"You are in the group phase, you go to the last 16, to the quarterfinals, to the semifinals, to the finals. This feeds the motivation. This feeds the concentration of a player.

"So I think it was the perfect environment for him."