Man Utd v Liverpool: Paul Pogba is looking like the real deal - Danny Murphy

In United's past 10 Premier League games, Pogba has also played more passes per game and with greater accuracy than he did in their first 10 of the season, but has made fewer tackles and interceptions

Sunday's game at Old Trafford is arguably more important for Manchester United because, if they beat Liverpool, their momentum grows and the gap between them and the top four gets even smaller.

Jose Mourinho's side will be full of confidence too. They are on a nine game-winning run, look strong and powerful and all their big players have been performing very well for the last couple of months.

Paul Pogba is definitely one of the United players who has hit form. Along with two of United's other summer signings, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrik Mkhitaryan, the France midfielder is playing at somewhere near the levels we know he can.

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Pogba playing with a strut and a swagger

Pogba's statistics show his growing influence on United's attack and I think he and Ibrahimovic in particular have built up a great rapport - they both seem to know each other's game now.

There might be an expectation from some people for Pogba to show why he is the most expensive player in the world against Liverpool, with a really dominant display in a match of this magnitude.

It is relevant which games you play well in, of course - because the best players always deliver when the big occasions come around. However, I don't think that is an issue for Pogba just because he started the season slowly after joining United for £89m in the summer.

If he did not play well in United's early matches against the leading teams - their defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea in September and October, for example - I would not necessarily put that down to who he was playing against.

It was more down to the 23-year-old settling in and the team finding its feet under a new manager. Now Mourinho has had longer with his players, they all look comfortable with their roles.

So, I do not expect Pogba to do anything against Liverpool other than play the way he has been playing for several weeks now - being confident and assertive on the ball and getting high up the pitch to hurt teams.

By doing precisely that, he has quite quickly become hugely important for United and he is now playing with a strut and a swagger, showing us what he is capable of.