Half of me wonders what Souness would be saying about Pogba if he were a Liverpool player. Same agenda? Doubt it.
Graeme Sourness | Retires from “punditry”
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He has worked with Dunphy on RTE a lot. He knows how being controversial and talking bollocks will get you notoriety and TV gigs.
Hasn't Souness been banging on about how Pogba has never lived up to his potential? Now he's doing it, Souness isn't happy. There's no pleasing some people, especially ex-Liverpool players.
I don't think it is. After the City match they had a big discussion about Liverpool's lack of creativity in midfield and Souness claimed he didn't have a problem with it. All they have to do is get it to the front men as quick as they can and cover their runs.
He really is a dinosaur
Two reasons. One that he's from a different generation which doesn't understand the 'youth of today' and the shift in culture which Pogba embodies more than most. The back-up evidence for that is how disparaging he has always been when he sees social media interfering in the game. And in terms of the generational mismatch, you can look at his struggles to man-manage headstrong players who fancied themselves a bit, see David Dunn at Blackburn, or Ally McCoist at Rangers. His managerial style was also more adversarial than you'd get away with today, see how he decked Ian Durrant or the run-in with Craig Bellamy. Clearly he does not sympathise with players who did not thrive with Mourinho's more confrontational ways.
The second is that, as one of the finest defensively aware midfielders we've seen, he understands the importance of defensive responsibility, tracking runners and taking up the right positions to protect the defence. He has always been big on that in his punditry and that is an area where Pogba has not always pulled his weight. Souness often overeggs the point because he feels that a lot of younger fans, or those who haven't played the game, understand the importance of holding the midfield together. Again there is plenty of evidence to back that up from his punditry over the years, or even the style of players he recruited as a manager at different clubs.
to be fair, that's pretty much what souness said but did criticise Pogba for no knowing it
I think Robson could and did, although I agree not consistently (neither does Pogba but maybe he could). But that's what Souness was saying: Pogba isn't that sort of player and shouldn't try to be
Not sure what exactly you meant, Souness criticize Pogba by assuming how every player should play, irrespective of their role and strengths.
In his own words he has a problem with two things related to Pogba. 1) he doesn't help out with defense 2) he tries to play a playmaker like "Pirlo". I'd bet that he never had a problem with Gerrard trying to play like Pirlo.
What he wants Pogba to do is, defend and make late runs into the box because of his "athleticism".
Now I'd be happy if Pogba did only that. But Pogba has shown in recent games that he's much more of a playmaker than a box-to-box midfielder with "athleticism". In Souness' mind he wants Pogba to be like Yaya Toure when in fact he's a more similar to De Bruyne.
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So true and exactly my thoughts although you explained it very precisely.
The Pirlo comparison was downright bizarre for a supposed professional analysis of a midfielder.
The man is an absolute Moron. Pogba is playing the way his current Manager Ole wants him to play. Not the way Souness thinks he should play. Since when did Souness become the manager of Manchester United?
So what if he does not defend or tracks back? It is not his problem. Pogba has won the WC. Souness went out in the first round with the golden generation of Scottish football.
So what if he does not defend or tracks back? It is not his problem. Pogba has won the WC. Souness went out in the first round with the golden generation of Scottish football.
How Sky employ this guy is beyond me.
He has some serious envy of Pogba doesn't he. It's a weird situation, even the host + other pundits know he can't wait to stick a foot in.
I would willing pay £100/mth Sky subscription just so I could see the ramblings of this bitter cnut.
To be fair Souness was bizarrely* on the bench in 1978 for the first two games when Scotland shat the bed against Peru and Iran. Reinstated for the final game, he dominated the Dutch and we won 3-2, but too little, too late.
*Not that bizarre given how woefully we prepared for the tournament.
Yeah, can’t really blame Souness for being managed by the Scottish Raymond Domenech.
For whatever reason, he dislikes Pogba, which is not that hard to comprehend - after all so did our esteemed ex-manager, including 60% of the CAF and some would even swap PP for Torreira or Kante or Henderson or whatever. So in disliking Pogba, Souness is not alone.
Whilst most of the CAF has reversed opinion, Souness remains stubborn. We're Man Utd fans, so it's easier for us to rally around our most talented player, whereas GS is a pundit trying to cultivate an image and reputation for his audience and SKY ratings. "OOO Graeme hates Pogba, let's generate some traffic online" blah, blah, blah.
Just quit trying to psycho-analyze the fecker and take him with a grain of salt
Whilst most of the CAF has reversed opinion, Souness remains stubborn. We're Man Utd fans, so it's easier for us to rally around our most talented player, whereas GS is a pundit trying to cultivate an image and reputation for his audience and SKY ratings. "OOO Graeme hates Pogba, let's generate some traffic online" blah, blah, blah.
Just quit trying to psycho-analyze the fecker and take him with a grain of salt
He just strikes me as a bitter old man - I suspect Paul is not the only thing in his life he moans about.
This is actually the most reasonable and well defined explanation! Thanks for posting.
Guys a weirdo, he's jealous of Pogba. Rightly so too the silly old cnut.
wish he was like De Bruyne, who almost never has a poor game. As for Gerrard, well he was massively overrated in my opinion
Pogba should text a photo of his world cup winners medal to Mrs. Souness.
It’s like seeing a girl you fancy shagging someone you don’t like.
He’s just a bitter old, irrelevant man.
Seeing Utd doing well and Pogba playing a big part of that really does irk him.
Maybe this is his real issue, closet fan.
Good post and the truth is Pogba has thrived because Solskjaer has taken away his defensive responsibilities and moved him further up the pitch. So in that aspect Souness was right (can’t believe I’ve wrote that!)
Bear in mind that when he managed Liverpool he got rid of flair players and brought in a load of cloggers. Eric Dier is much closer to his ideal midfielder than Pogba.
Rather sad really*. As a player he was a hard cnut, but extremely skilful also, and he had great vision.
* not sad that his actions fecked Liverpool long term
Rather sad really*. As a player he was a hard cnut, but extremely skilful also, and he had great vision.
* not sad that his actions fecked Liverpool long term
It's hard (as at times he really seems to have an agends) but I've been trying to take his comments as a positive. He obviously is a die hard Liverpool fan so will be hating anything we do well. If he's negative we should be taking it as a compliment. It means he's worried that we won t perhaps fade away in the same way Liverpool did in the 90s.
He's moved him up the pitch, but Pogba is working damn hard defensively. The difference is it's the secondary job for him now instead of the primary and that's really helping him expressive himself.
I find it a bit of a shame as I used to like his punditry. Though one of the funniest things I can recall was when he was discussing and Totti and said “what’s he actually won?” And Jamie Redknapp shut him down with “a World Cup and a scudetto”.
He was always quite complimentary about United under Fergie and was more critical of Liverpool. Quite a turnaround since.
Weren’t Stein and Fergie in charge when he was overlooked for Scotland’s WC? Probably in awe of Fergie. Think he was crying off for Scotland friendlies and expected to walk back into the team. Their performance vs Holland was more about the pressure being off as they were eliminated by that stage.... wasn’t because of his presence. Scotland actually had a cracking side back then. Just never played as a team.
Weren’t Stein and Fergie in charge when he was overlooked for Scotland’s WC? Probably in awe of Fergie. Think he was crying off for Scotland friendlies and expected to walk back into the team. Their performance vs Holland was more about the pressure being off as they were eliminated by that stage.... wasn’t because of his presence. Scotland actually had a cracking side back then. Just never played as a team.
Yes, it was a case of the shackles coming off and a nothing to lose attitude coming over the team.
But Souness transformed the team and completely runs the game. Sets up Rioch for a header that cracked off the junction after a couple of minutes, sets up the first goal, wins the penalty for Scotland's second.
Hmmm... don’t think he ran the game at all. No more than Archie Gemmill or 2/3 others. We actually had a world class squad of players, odd as that sounds now. Didn’t matter to Holland either. Might as well have been a testimonial. Whatever, Souness was a prominent team member but no way any more so than several others.
Even when he gives Pogba credit. He says Pogbas touch before the pass wasn’t great.
I don’t know why Sky keep wheeling this cretin out. Used to be tolerable. But now it’s just sad.
I don’t know why Sky keep wheeling this cretin out. Used to be tolerable. But now it’s just sad.
It’s like he demands absolute 100% perfection from Pogba. It’s very strange.
It's more he looks for every excuse to be critical. Even if Pogba was 100% perfect, he'd still complain that he hadn't cured cancer while doing so.
"Pogba's first touch for the goal was poor"