Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hit back at Paul Pogba's critics and has described the scrutiny of the French midfielder as "extremely harsh."
Pogba, 23, started in France's laboured opening Euro 2016 2-1 win over Romania before going on to lose his starting place in Didier Deschamps' side for the next match against Albania.
And Wenger, who is known admirer of the Juventus midfielder, believes he should be given more time to mature as a player before people cast an opinion on him.
"I watched the match against Romania a second time to form a proper opinion," Wenger told Football Stories. "I think that in general the criticism of Pogba was extremely harsh.
"In that match [Blaise] Matuidi and Pogba played to more or less the same standard.
"That said we also expect a lot from Pogba. But we forget that he's only 23 and at 23 it's difficult to be the leader of the French team.
"Guys like [Michel] Platini and [Zinedine] Zidane were also called into question at that age. Pogba is in the process of learning the job.
"They start with the French team at 20 or 21 and everyone says: 'you're the most beautiful and strongest that we've ever had.'
"Little by little expectation is created and at 22 or 23 we say to you 'hey my man, you're not bringing what we expected of you.'
"And all of a sudden you find yourself thrown to the very top of an extremely brutal questioning."
Wenger also feels the performances we're seeing from Pogba now are to be expected, and that he'll grow into a "great player" within the next few years.
"He'll be the player that we expect at 26," Wenger added. "That he's not bringing everything that we expect of him, it's normal at that age.
"I don't know any player who carried the French team at 23 years of age. None.
"Now that he's going through a maturing period, we start to cast doubt on him. It's the mental test in the career of a top player.
"Either he'll lose the aura that he had or else he's going to show that he's the player that we were waiting for and he's going to develop further.
"It's the normal phase for a very good player on the path to becoming a great player."
ESPN FC's France correspondent Mark Rodden contributed to this report.