Playing Pogba as part of a midfield duo is not going to get the best out of the team or him. We are best served with PP on the ball around the opposition box since he is our main creator and our focal point in attack. The opposition needs two players on him to stop him. Additionally, he plays with too high a risk to consistently bring the ball out of defence, causing dangerous situations. Problem with him not coming deep to collect is that we lack players that can do this. Only other midfielders with the technical ability to do this are Gomes and Pereira.
Either you play PP as the CAM with two players behind him or part of a trio where PP will be the one with most freedom.
If we had a system that was focusing on possession then Gomes and Pereira would be the players to either play behind PP or together with him in a trio. Unfortunately, we do not. Hopefully, our players become better at pressing as a team, and correct spacing between the players negates the need for having big players like McTominay.
IMO we should give Gomes, Pogba and Pereira time in the midfield together(at least two of them). They are our best passers, and I don't think that McTominay and Lingard's pressing and off the ball involvements are anywhere close to being good enough to cover for their lack of technical and passing ability.
James is also a very raw product, and his abilities on the ball are limited. We are better served by playing someone like Greenwood in this position against teams sitting low and where there is little to no space for James to run in.
My prefered starting 11 against supposedly weaker teams like Palace would be:
DDG
AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
Gomes - Pereira/Matic - Pogba
Greenwood - Martial - Rashford