Graeme Sourness | Retires from “punditry”

meninred said:
Souness is a military man.
A disciplinarian.He is not going to like Pogba.
Click to expand...

:lol:

He wouldn't know a military man if one walked up and smacked him in the face.


He's an old bloke who wishes it was still like it was in 'his day'. Simple as that. He's hugely jealous Pogba gets all this praise and wealth, yet despite his achievements he's largely been forgotten about.
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
He also said LVG was one of the world’s best managers. Souness is a dinosaur, who really doesn’t have much insight into the modern game.

Having said that, it’s good to have different opinions, rather than everyone agreeing - but all the other guests constantly call him out for being wrong, it’s somewhat amusing.
Click to expand...


Van Gaal was one of the world's best managers
 
Fortitude said:
Sky/Souness are going to try and make a campaign of this Pogba foul and try and get him barred.

If they're successful, he'll miss how many games?
Click to expand...


None since the ref gave a free kick same as the Shelvey tackle
 
ayushreddevil9 said:
Can anybody post a video of what he said today?
Click to expand...

I wasn't able to find a link to the video I'm afraid.

This is my best recollection of what was said:

REDKNAPP: “I’ve done it before. That’s why I understand. It was a retrospective red card on Tim Cahill playing for Tottenham against Everton. What he’s (Pogba) trying to do is step across the ball to protect him.

“It looks horrendous, don’t get me wrong. It looks like he’s tried to go right over the top of the ball. Personally it’s not malicious. I certainly was not a malicious player. But it looks so bad.

“When I look back, I remember going to see Tim Cahill afterwards and saying ‘I really apologise for that because it looks horrendous, but I genuinely didn’t mean it’. It’s just when you step across the ball to protect it and let it roll across your body. It looks like a red but personally it doesn’t look like it is.”

SOUNESS: “I think it’s a red card. Sorry Jamie, I disagree with you. It’s a red card. Not one ounce of doubt in my mind. Not one ounce.

“He knows what he’s done. Let’s start with what Jamie’s saying. You step over it and use your strength to keep the player away.

“But look where the ball is and look where the foot it. When you’re doing that your studs are generally always aiming towards the ground.

REDKNAPP: “Do you think he tried to do him there, Graeme?”

SOUNESS: “Well certainly. I would also say if the referee doesn’t see it as a red card - he sees it as a foul so, he’s seen it as we see it. He’s seen it as a yellow card then he know nothing about football either, the referee.”

REDKNAPP: “Well I know nothing either then. I’ve been in that position Graeme. Mine actually looks a lot worse than that, trust me. I have 10 times worse.

SOUNESS: “I’ve been guilty of that (too) and received that.”

REDKNAPP: “Ha! We know!”

SOUNESS: “For me there’s not one ounce of doubt in my mind that wasn’t him going over the ball.”

REDKNAPP: “But I just don’t think it was malicious.”

KEANE: “I played in the game when Jamie did that. And I think Jamie did mean it to be honest with you! (laughs).”
 
Souness started with basic valid arguments that made sense then it turned into an agenda with him wanting to be proven right.. instead of just admitting he was wrong... or inserting caveat about mourinho buying a player and not playing to his strengths
 
Random Task said:
I wasn't able to find a link to the video I'm afraid.

This is my best recollection of what was said:

REDKNAPP: “I’ve done it before. That’s why I understand. It was a retrospective red card on Tim Cahill playing for Tottenham against Everton. What he’s (Pogba) trying to do is step across the ball to protect him.

“It looks horrendous, don’t get me wrong. It looks like he’s tried to go right over the top of the ball. Personally it’s not malicious. I certainly was not a malicious player. But it looks so bad.

“When I look back, I remember going to see Tim Cahill afterwards and saying ‘I really apologise for that because it looks horrendous, but I genuinely didn’t mean it’. It’s just when you step across the ball to protect it and let it roll across your body. It looks like a red but personally it doesn’t look like it is.”

SOUNESS: “I think it’s a red card. Sorry Jamie, I disagree with you. It’s a red card. Not one ounce of doubt in my mind. Not one ounce.

“He knows what he’s done. Let’s start with what Jamie’s saying. You step over it and use your strength to keep the player away.

“But look where the ball is and look where the foot it. When you’re doing that your studs are generally always aiming towards the ground.

REDKNAPP: “Do you think he tried to do him there, Graeme?”

SOUNESS: “Well certainly. I would also say if the referee doesn’t see it as a red card - he sees it as a foul so, he’s seen it as we see it. He’s seen it as a yellow card then he know nothing about football either, the referee.”

REDKNAPP: “Well I know nothing either then. I’ve been in that position Graeme. Mine actually looks a lot worse than that, trust me. I have 10 times worse.

SOUNESS: “I’ve been guilty of that (too) and received that.”

REDKNAPP: “Ha! We know!”

SOUNESS: “For me there’s not one ounce of doubt in my mind that wasn’t him going over the ball.”

REDKNAPP: “But I just don’t think it was malicious.”

KEANE: “I played in the game when Jamie did that. And I think Jamie did mean it to be honest with you! (laughs).”
Click to expand...
Oh that's a lot of effort mate. Thanks!
 
Random Task said:
I love how you interpreted that comment :devil:
Click to expand...

"I don't want him running into my box and I'm having to track back with him. I think there is a real player in there, someone who has all the equipment to be a top midfielder player.

"He has the athleticism to arrive in the box late and get lots of goals that way and get well into double figures every year. That will be an enormous asset to United.

"He has the potential to be one of the very best out there."

More from souness. Pretty reasonable interpretation, no?
 
I’m not a huge fan of souness and he clearly finds it uncomfortable to praise united but I think a lot of his criticism of pogba is quite fair. He compares him to pirlo for example and pirlo made it work under any circumstances as I recall. Pogba being hit and miss for 2 years cannot be solely put down to Jose (and no, I’m not a Jose sympathiser). I think he’s right in saying that he fancies playing for this manager and that’s the biggest factor. Despite that he has been immense since OGS took over, an absolute joy to watch.
 
Arbitrium said:
"I don't want him running into my box and I'm having to track back with him. I think there is a real player in there, someone who has all the equipment to be a top midfielder player.

"He has the athleticism to arrive in the box late and get lots of goals that way and get well into double figures every year. That will be an enormous asset to United.

"He has the potential to be one of the very best out there."

More from souness. Pretty reasonable interpretation, no?
Click to expand...

He gave Pogba some praise but then went back to slagging him off.
 
Arbitrium said:
"I don't want him running into my box and I'm having to track back with him. I think there is a real player in there, someone who has all the equipment to be a top midfielder player.

"He has the athleticism to arrive in the box late and get lots of goals that way and get well into double figures every year. That will be an enormous asset to United.

"He has the potential to be one of the very best out there."

More from souness. Pretty reasonable interpretation, no?
Click to expand...

He said all of that today? I don't recall any of that if I'm being honest mate.

Take your word for it.
 
Arbitrium said:
Pretty much what he was alluding to.

Direct quote “I don’t think anyone put the shackles on him not with the amount of athleticism he has”
Click to expand...
How do you take that direct quote (which was a dig) and turn it into "To summarize it, be basically said that pogba has all the athleticism in the world to be a top midfield player."

Completely different things.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
How do you take that direct quote (which was a dig) and turn it into "To summarize it, be basically said that pogba has all the athleticism in the world to be a top midfield player."

Completely different things.
Click to expand...

That was jusy one of the quotes. It was in a summarization to the whole segment I just posted above this.
 
What is Souness smoking? :wenger:

That rant where he went off on one about Pogba in the 'Pirlo role' is wow. He plays as an attacking mid the fool. Hes nothing like Pirlo nor do we want him to be. Matic covers for him whilst he has full license to attack. His defensive 'nous' is irrelevant. He is a creative, technical midfielder.

Compare his performance to Eriksen's today. He has the same role as Pogba but you wouldn't hear anyone complaining that Eriksen's defensive 'nous' was not good enough. They would rightly, be laughed out of the room.

Its totally bizarre the standard that Pogba is judged at.
 
Last edited:
He must have some friends in high places at sky to keep avoiding the cull over the years seeing how many of the old boys have gone
 
I was baffled when I heard him say that Pogba and the rest of your players weren’t shackled by Mourinho’s system/tactics, it was obvious for months he wasn’t getting the best out of your players due to a combination of bad man management and his overly negative tactics. My only conclusion is that maybe in the playing days of Souness, players did actually take more responsibility on the pitch and wouldn’t need to be told to make runs into the box.

Perhaps the modern day player takes his managers instructions too literally. I also don’t quite understand why he keeps bashing Pogba yet players like Ozil and many others get off scot-free.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't think that Souness is even worth a thread on here. He hasn't been relevant since he left Liverpool. Let's all collectively chuck this windbag over a bridge and get on with our lives.
 
Steerpike said:
I thought his criticism was fair and balanced. He said quite clearly that Pogba has everything needed, right now, to be a top class attacking midfielder, and that he would have hated being up against him playing in that role. He also said that Pogba didn't have the defensive nous, the positional sense and ability to recognise danger, to be as effective in the deeper lying 'Pirlo' role.

This chimes with what many people have been saying here in the Cafe all season, and with the criticism levelled at Mourinho for his use of Pogba.
Click to expand...
He wasn't though. He was questioning his ability as a top class defensive midfielder..he actually used those words..that's been a moot point since Paul has become an attacking midfielder as he always should have been.
Consistency was always the problem with Paul but thats many big game since last Christmas alone when he's been the best midfielder, if not player, on the pitch.
 
I forgot about the bit where he randomly started claiming that Pogba thinks he's Pirlo :lol:

He started off with his usual can be a class player but lacks discipline (was a fair point the first 500 times he mentioned it) mantra, then something seemed to just set him off on some tangent of inventing bizarre straw arguments to attack Pogba with. You can see that he's genuinely angry as well. What a weirdo. It's like he thinks his world is caving in because people don't want to agree with him.
 
Not impressed with his comment about David Johnson* either.


*See the Richard Keys thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.