Souness warns French coach Deschamps not to play Pogba as central midfielder
- Ex-Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness wants France boss Didier Deschamps to use Paul Pogba as an impact substitute
- The 65-year-old Souness believes France will struggle to get the best out of Manchester United midfielder
- Pogba was left out of a number of big fixtures by Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho last Premier League campaign.
Former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness has cautioned French coach Didier Deschamps that Manchester United top midfielder Paul Pogba should not be on the starting line up for the Les Blues during the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.
According to a UK Daily Mail report, quoting sources at The Sunday Times, Souness who also doubles as a pundict for Sky Sports noted that the former Juventus box-to-box midfielder will not function effectively in a central midfield role.
The 65-year-old Souness, who was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s stressed that the French coach will find it tough to get a formation that will bring out the best of the Red Devils ace at the Mundial.
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Already, at club level the French international has been kept quite on the subs bench or offered less playing time in a number of top fixtures by United's Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho during the closing weeks of last campaign.
And Souness who also captained the Scotland national team as well as playing for the trio of Tottenham Hotspur, Middlesbrough and Sampdoria in his hey days, insists that the French manager will encounter similar circumstances as Pogba's Red Devils' boss in trying to bring out the best from the 25-year-old midfielder.
"There are question marks about France. Like Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, Didier Deschamps struggles to find a system that gets the best out of Paul Pogba," he wrote in The Sunday Times.
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"He should draw a line under that. You can't trust him as a central midfielder and, ultimately, that's how Deschamps will see it. He could use Pogba as an impact substitute.If you're 1-0 up, you're not bringing him on to close the game down. If you're chasing the game, he might do something, but still doesn't understand the midfield role properly."
Interestingly, Pogba was on the starting line during France's final pre-World Cup game over the weekend as they forced the USA to a 1-1 draw in Lyon.
PSG's Kylian Mbappe saved the day for the Les Bleus with a second-half goal that cancelled out Julian Green's opener in the 45th minutes.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously had reported that France international Paul Pogba has blasted back at his critics ahead of the World Cup and told them “no one can tell me how to play”.
The 25-year-old has been slammed on numerous occasions this season from pundits and former players after a difficult campaign at Old Trafford.
He has also had several bust-ups with Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho, leading to him being dropped to the bench for several matches.
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Source: Legit.ng
