Soccer-Improving United need to win trophies, says Pogba

July 13 (Reuters) - Manchester United have made huge improvements this season but need to win trophies to ensure a successful campaign, their France midfielder Paul Pogba said on Monday.

United are fifth in the Premier League standings with 58 points but can leapfrog Leicester City and Chelsea into third spot by beating Southampton at Old Trafford later on Monday, with their focus on qualifying for the Champions League.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's in-form side are also in contention to win the FA Cup, where they face Chelsea in the semi-finals at Wembley, and the Europa League, where they hold a 5-0 lead over LASK heading into the home second leg of their last-16 tie.

"United are about trophies, we know that. There are trophies we know we can get," Pogba, 27, told the club's website https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/paul-pogba-urges-man-utd-team-mates-to-end-season-on-a-high. "We don't want to let this opportunity go. We're going to do our best to go and get those two trophies by giving everything."

United are on a 17-match unbeaten streak in all competitions and Pogba has credited their recent run of form to striking a balance between attack and defence.

"You can call it a proper team. Sometimes before we were maybe too defensive or too offensive and we didn't have this balance or this control. Now you can see we have that balance and there is more structure," he said.

"The improvement is huge but you don't want to stop it. There is a lot of stuff to do, we are not there yet but we are on the way. If we keep doing what we're doing, then I think there is nothing that can stop us to get to where we should be."

Pogba has been impressive since returning from an ankle injury, netting his first league goal since April 2019 in last week's 3-0 win at Aston Villa. (Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru)