Flashy vs. no-nonsense. There was only ever going to be one winner in Graeme Souness' eyes.
Souness' issues with Paul Pogba have been well documented and the Sky Sports pundit even has a knack of dragging Pogba into conversations that have nothing to do with Manchester United or France.
Pogba has faced a lot of criticism since his £89.3 million return to United in 2016 and the vast majority of that has come from Souness.
Even when Souness was playing in the 1970s and 1980s, his style of play could be considered old-fashioned and his fondness for the less flashy players nowadays was always to be expected.
The 65-year-old was hit with an interesting question this week as Souness was asked whether he would prefer to have Pogba or Liverpool's hard-working Mr. Versatile, James Milner, in his team.
"That’s easy," Souness told
Paddy Power .
"It isn’t even a question. Milner, every day of the week. He’s a proper player.
"Who would I rather play against? Paul Pogba. I don’t want to play against Milner.
"But, with Pogba, it’s all about him and his game. He’s not going to stop me, he lets you play, and that’s one of the criticisms.
"Having the ball is only half of the game. A big part of being a top player, as he aspires to be, is you have to stop the guy you’re up against.
"And that’s part of the captaincy. If I’m having a good day, that means I’m stopping the guy I’m against directly.
"It’s not just about I’ll play and I’ll play, there’s another side to the game.
"You can’t pick and choose when you want to be bang at it."
