If Veratti is a better player than Pogba (lol zach) then Witsel should be an adequate replacement
let's compare our big game player playing against basically the same barca in june 2015 that verratti played against in april 2015.
pogba vs barcelona
do you mind to count the amount of misplaced passes, bad tackles and possession losses ? that are probably more misplaced passes in one match half against barca than verratti does in a half a season.
verratti vs barcelona
enough seen and said
it is basically stepover without end result vs. simple and efficient passing and maturity. on high profile games you will have way more benefit with a calm player like verratti that is so frigging calm that the opponents do not even dare to press anymore, because they simply will not get the ball back and just ridiculed. compare that to pogba who does a few step overs and a misplaced pass which leads to all the team mates that tried to make runs are now out of possession and need to hurry back because we got a counter attack running against us.
i see the value in pogba, but if pogba is worth 100m, then verratti is probably worth 130m just because verratti is much more of a finished product than the "might be" world beater pogba might or might not turn out to become.