London: Jose Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba has become a simmering problem for Manchester United. Subbed off in his last two starts, both defeats, benched in the game between that, a 2-0 home stroll past Huddersfield, has an 89-million-pound signing become dispensable? A suggestion made by L’Equipe on Thursday was that Pogba holds regrets about rejoining United in the summer of 2016.

Pogba played his best football on the left of a midfield trio for Juventus but Alexis Sanchez’s arrival on the left wing has Mourinho reluctant to leave that side of his defence unprotected. Sanchez’s demands to play every game, including cup matches, caused problems with Arsene Wenger, and whether Mourinho is similarly indulgent at Huddersfield will be telling.

And where might that leave Pogba? From a choice of left midfield, sitting deeper or substitute, Pogba’s favourite position seems the least likely Mourinho option. Resting Pogba altogether from action at the Kirklees Stadium might be the pragmatic, expedient decision.

A Carvalhal reunion at Hillsborough

Swansea’s surprise managerial appointment, Carlos Carvalhal, gets a quick return to his former stomping ground of Hillsborough, where he will stand in the adjacent technical area to his former club’s equally surprising choice of successor, Jos Luhukay.

Sheffield Wednesday’s new manager had not got off to the best of starts, but a maiden league win against Derby County on Tuesday night will have silenced any hoots of disapproval from Owls fans.

Lucas Joao scored either side of half-time in that win, prompting Derby manager Gary Rowett to describe him as unplayable.

A peripheral figure in the squad during Carvalhal’s reign, the 24-year-old appears to have hit his straps at exactly the right time to show his former manager exactly what he can do.

City an unwelcome distraction for Wigan

Wigan have wobbled since toppling West Ham in the previous round, losing to Blackpool and Southend and so the visit of Manchester City — although a free hit — is the last thing Paul Cook’s promotion chasers need. The Liverpudlian manager joked this week that he has asked the Football Association whether they can tackle City with 14 men. After hitting seven past Oxford before Christmas, they were seven points clear of third place but now have Blackburn Rovers breathing down their necks.

These kind of games tend to go one of two ways; they either galvanise a team before the run-in or act as a distraction, leaving them devoid of all legs. Bristol City, for example, are still recovering from doing battle with City over two legs. After facing City, they face three league games in eight days. So, what will be the lasting effect of Wigan’s joust with City on Monday night?

Locadia ready to make Seagulls bow

The lowest ranked side left in this year’s competition, Coventry City, sit 63 places below their hosts, Brighton, on the league ladder. Despite a lowly League Two status inflicted upon them after years of hideously neglectful ownership, an incredible 28,343 supporters turned up at the Ricoh Arena to see them lose against Accrington last weekend following a successful promotion run by the club to help take the usual bare look off a stadium that usually struggles to attract crowds of more than six thousand.

An insipid midweek defeat against Colchester, their third on the spin, has derailed Coventry’s promotion push and the absence through injury of their captain Michael Doyle, who will be forced to sit out their trip to Brighton this weekend, will hurt all the more. Few beyond Brighton fans would begrudge the 1987 FA Cup winners a place in the quarter-finals but unless they massively improve on recent performances, the Amex Stadium is where this year’s fairy tale journey will end.

Those same Brighton fans will be keeping their eyes peeled for a first sighting of their record signing, the Dutch striker Jurgen Locadia, the 14-million-pound January acquisition from PSV Eindhoven who has recovered from a hamstring injury and looks guaranteed to feature in Chris Hughton’s match-day plans.

A shop window for Rochdale’s relegation-threatened journeymen

Rock bottom of League One, nine points from safety and with just one win in the third tier since late November, Rochdale welcome Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday as they attempt to make the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. They have played in the fifth round twice before, going out to Crystal Palace in 1990 and Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2003.

Sunday’s visitors to Spotland get a considerable amount of stick for being relentlessly fawned over without ever actually winning any silverware, while Rochdale have quite literally never won a trophy on which the word ‘Lancashire’ was not engraved.

A team comprised of jobbing low-end journeymen who look destined for relegation could ask for no better shop window to showcase their talents and will be relishing the prospect of getting stuck into a Tottenham team that showed little or no appetite for a similar kind of scrap against Newport County at Rodney Parade.

For Tottenham, this is quite the return to earth after their midweek adventures in Turin and romantics will be hoping Keith Hill will have his team primed to ensure their opponents’ landing is anything but smooth.

Fixtures

Saturday, February 17 fixtures (GMT)

Sheffield Wednesday v Swansea City (1230)

West Bromwich Albion v Southampton (1500)

Brighton & Hove Albion v Coventry City (1500)

Huddersfield Town v Manchester United (1730)

Sunday, February 18 fixtures (GMT)

Rochdale v Tottenham Hotspur (1600)

Monday, February 19 fixtures (GMT)

Wigan Athletic v Manchester City (1955)