Dropping Pogba Is Not the Solution For France

There are reports, after France's stumbling win over Romania where they had to be rescued by Payet, that Pogba will be one of those forced to be the fall-guy as Deschamps looks to reorganize the team for Albania. He definitely needs to do this because the formation he put out there does not work. However, dropping Pogba should not be on the cards of this restructuring.





Pogba didn't have the best game against Romania, I'll hold my hands up as a fan of him and say so. But so did a lot of the French players, especially the midfield. Payet was the only French player who stood out and looked at ease in his role and who was the best player on the pitch. So this is really a team thing as a whole that Deschamps needs to work out, and not about two or three players playing badly.



The issue was Pogba, Kante and Matuidi couldn't really figure out where they needed to be because the formation did not benefit them. Pogba would be better served if he had one other midfield partner with him. For argument's sake let's say it's Kante. He would play the more defensive part of the duo leaving Pogba to marshall the center of the midfield and connect up with the attacking midfield three of Griezmann, Martial and Payet.

By doing this, both Kante and Pogba clearly know what their roles are and don't run into any confusion and get jumbled up in the midfield. What Deschamps will see is a more dominant Pogba who now clearly knows what his job is as a midfielder. Having both Kante and Matuidi in there, just adds to the confusion, and you'll get two player both trying to act as the man in the center of the midfield, where that should be the job of only one player.

By having Pogba in this position, you will see that he'll look for the ball and start spraying it about to the wings to stretch the game or surge forward if he finds space. That is the strength of Pogba's game. He is a great natural central midfielder who is given the sole job of being the General of that area.

You look at Croatia, they have a very defined role for Modric. He is the pure midfielder whose task it is to pick up the ball from the defence and to transition the midfield to attack. It works a treat for Croatia, it gets them going and gives them a very specific structure that made them look so smooth against Turkey.

It would be a huge mistake for Deschamps to drop the talented Pogba. I'm not saying he is the best player for France but he is hugely important. For the balance of the team and adding some glue to the very important center of the pitch, Pogba is needed. He just needs to be put in a formation that works for him and the team. HH


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