One of the midfielder’s most vocal detractors, the former Liverpool man was again scathing following the weekend’s draw with Chelsea

Graeme Souness has once again taken aim at Manchester United star Paul Pogba, claiming that he is incapable of performing football’s basic tasks. 

Pogba has endured a difficult 2018 with his club, failing to find the form that saw him lead France to World Cup victory. 

Souness has been one of Pogba’s most inveterate critics, recently asserting that he would rather have James Milner leading the midfield. 

And the United man came in for more criticism following his club’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea. 

“I think they’ve run out of patience with him, you cannot as a manager keep saying ‘this is what you need to do’,” Souness fired on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football broadcast. 

“As Joe Fagan would say – the great Joe Fagan would say – ‘we’ll tell you once we’ll tell you twice and if you don’t get it you won’t be here very long’ and it was as brutal as that.

“This boy has been blessed with the most wonderful athleticism, he’s six foot four, I’m sure he can leap like a stag and run like the wind. You’d think this was tailor made for him.

“You don’t have to be six foot four to prevent someone from getting a clear header at your goal. Someone my size could prevent Rudiger getting that header if you really wanted to.

“He’s got fabulous technique, he’s got fabulous athleticism, but for me he just doesn’t do the basics right. But there is a player there.

“I’m seen as his biggest critic but his manager is not happy with him. I’ve been a manager and I’m saying to myself, like Jose will be saying to himself, ‘what a player this boy could be if you would just listen and learn.’

“Even at 25 you never stop learning in this game. If this boy believes that he is the real deal at 25 then he won’t get any better.

“He should be turning up every day listening to the manager, listening to the senior players and wanting to improve. I’m not sure if that is the case but I’ll come back to it, this boy could be a top, top player.”

Pogba and United will be back in action on Tuesday, when the midfielder’s old employers Juventus visit Old Trafford for the latest round of Champions League group clashes.

The Reds boss took Henderson’s desire to stay on against Huddersfield Town as a good sign for his injury prospects.

Jurgen Klopp is hopeful Jordan Henderson will avoid becoming the latest first-team regular on Liverpool’s injury list following his early withdrawal against Huddersfield on Saturday.

The England midfielder reportedly experienced hamstring tightness before being replaced by Georginio Wijnaldum at half-time of the narrow 1-0 win.

Naby Keita and Sadio Mane missed the match with hamstring and hand issues respectively while Mohamed Salah, James Milner and Virgil van Dijk all started under injury clouds.

The visitors ultimately secured three hard-earned points thank to Salah’s first-half strike, with Henderson’s fitness now the focus in the wake of a taxing international break.

“I hope so,” Klopp told reporters when asked if the skipper’s substitution was precautionary.

“It was not that he felt nothing but he didn’t feel a lot. He wanted to carry on – that’s a good sign. We decided no. Hopefully it’s nothing.”

A sixth clean sheet of the campaign formed the basis of a battling victory which kept Liverpool level on points with Manchester City, although Klopp was not entirely satisfied.

“The result is good. I knew it would be difficult after the international break as it always is,” he said.

“I’m not angry or whatever, but I think we should expect of ourselves to do better. We expect from ourselves really good football and I like to see that.

“The basis we’ve created so far is brilliant: 23 points, I don’t think I’ve had that before after nine games. And still space for improvement [which is] good as well.”

Klopp went on to express sympathy for close friend David Wagner and admiration for his “very good” Huddersfield outfit.

The Terriers boss was similarly upbeat despite being left with a fifth successive home blank and just three points from a winless start, with only Newcastle separating them from the bottom of the Premier League.

“It’s the truth that we have problems with scoring goals, but it’s also the truth that we perform at a very high level,” Wagner said. “We have the passion and desire to limit a side like Liverpool.

“We were able to create opportunities against opponents of different levels and that’s what I’m focused on. The goals will come.”

The forward has not scored in eight matches, leaving the Portuguese boss concerned with his star’s low confidence level

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho admitted he is concerned by Romelu Lukaku’s goal drought after another blank against Juventus in the Champions League.

Lukaku and United were toothless as they were outclassed 1-0 by Juve at Old Trafford on Tuesday . The Belgian striker’s scoreless streak for the club reached eight matches.

The 25-year-old has scored four goals this season – all in the Premier League – though he has not found the back of the net since September 15 against Watford. 

And Manchester United have won just two of the eight matches since his last goal and now sit five points back of Juventus in Champions League Group H and nine points back of cross-town rivals and league leaders Manchester City in the Premier League table. 

The loss of form has left Mourinho concerned, though the Old Trafford boss remains committed to the Belgian as his lead striker. 

“Yeah,” Mourinho replied when asked if he was concerned by Lukaku’s impotence. “No critics at all, a complete understanding the player is a fantastic professional that wants to give everything for the team, but I have to agree his moment is not sweet.

“Not just with the goals that he is not scoring but also in his confidence, in his movement, in his touch, he is not linking the game well with the team. But he’s our striker and a good striker and a striker we believe in.

“Could I play [Marcus] Rashford there? But then I don’t have a winger because in this moment we are in this difficult situation.

“He [Lukaku] is a hard-working guy, is a good professional, but one day the goal will arrive and the confidence will be back.”

Mourinho will hope to see the 25-year-old back at his best soon. 

Bournemouth and Everton are up next in the Premier League before the return clash against Juventus in the Champions and a league derby clash against Pep Guardiola’s City. 

The Serie A side left Spain empty-handed following goals from Rafinha and Jordi Alba midweek, much to the forward’s frustration

Mauro Icardi said Inter were not up to their own standard as he lamented the club’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona in the absence of Lionel Messi.

Messi watched from the stands as his Barca team-mates earned a 2-0 Group B victory over Italian visitors Inter at Camp Nou on Wednesday.

Icardi and Inter were looking to take advantage of Messi’s absence, with the Barca captain and five-time Ballon d’Or winner sidelined due to a fractured arm.

But Inter left Barcelona empty-handed following goals from Rafinha and Jordi Alba, much to Icardi’s frustration.

“I think the difference was in the first half, where we didn’t play up to Inter standards. We left too many spaces and allowed them the initiative,” Icardi told Sky Sport Italia .

“In the second half, we did better and forced Barcelona to misplace passes, but could’ve done more to make the most of the situation by finishing off the chances.

“I am not very happy with the performance, because we could’ve done well from the start and instead were pinned back. We’ve got to put in a great shift at San Siro and get points to go through.

“We knew that we were up against world class champions who have won everything over the years. If you allow them a goal, it becomes difficult to recover.”

The defeat ended Inter’s perfect start to Group B, with Luciano Spalletti’s side now three points behind Barca heading into the reverse fixture at San Siro on November 6.

Following a slow start in league play Inter have run off five wins on the trot, including a 1-0 result against AC Milan in the Derby della Madonnina, to move up to third in the Serie A table. 

They face a tough match against fourth-placed Lazio at the weekend and will take on another top-half side in Genoa before hosting Barcelona on November 6. 

The soundtrack of soccer for many years in the United States, the commentator will be honored Saturday

JP Dellacamera’s best call wasn’t verbose. It wasn’t drawn out. In fact, it really can’t get more simple than his call of the winning penalty in the 1999 Women’s World Cup.

“All I said was ‘Goal.’ In my goal call I didn’t say “They win the World Cup.’ I just set the stage, one word and laid out,” Dellacamera said this week. “To me that was my signature call, and it’s the way I’ve always thought of announcing. Don’t be bigger than the moment.”

The legendary broadcaster has been the soundtrack for many American soccer moments like Brandi Chastain’s historic kick, but this weekend he’s getting a moment of his own. Dellacamera is being honored at Saturday’s National Soccer Hall of Fame ceremony as this year’s Colin Jose Media Award winner.

It’s been a long road for Dellacamera, one he’s careful to note isn’t coming to an end. After calling the Concacaf Women’s Championship this week, he’s the odds-on favorite to be the voice of the 2019 World Cup in France where he could call another United States victory like the one in 1999. Few would’ve expected him to go from calling minor league hockey in the 1980s to becoming one of the most recognizable voices in American soccer.

That’s what happened, though, with a first step that seems unbelievable now. Legendary Pittsburgh Penguins announcer Mike Lange was approached by Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Sports to broadcast indoor soccer but passed the chance on to a young Dellacamera. While he continued calling hockey games, including becoming the local TV voice of the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers, the link to soccer always has been the strongest.

“Initially that’s what I wanted to be was a hockey announcer. I was doing minor-league hockey and got a break doing indoor soccer. Indoor soccer led to outdoor soccer,” he said. “Even though I’ve done other things since – I’ve done basketball and hockey with the Thrashers – my living has really been 90 percent soccer and now it’s pretty much 100 percent soccer.”

Being all soccer all the time wasn’t an option Dellacamera’s career was getting started. Soccer matches on television were rare and often time-shifted to air at odd times. Even when the sport became more prominent and Dellacamera had been a regular, he missed out on a pair of World Cups, calling games in 2010 and 2014 on ESPN Radio rather than on television after ESPN opted to use a crew made entirely of British play-by-play voice.

Some American fans, many of whom have fought for local soccer development for years, are still steamed about the decision. The 66-year-old, however, takes a more pragmatic approach.

“I never think about that stuff. I do this because I love this,” he said. “I don’t do it because of money, recognition. I do it because I love it. If awards come to me, that’s fantastic. I never think, this is something I should have gotten or I deserve. I’m not wired that way. Through my career, I’ve never asked anyone why they didn’t use me on something, just like I never asked them why they did.”

That response shows the elements of Dellacamera’s character that viewers don’t get to see, according to John Strong, another play-by-play commentator in Fox’s stable. 

“It’s sort of mind-blowing how many times he has gotten a remarkably short stick in a certain situation,” Strong said. “He probably should be more angry than he is. He probably should be more resentful than he is for the opportunities that were taken away from him. But he always plugged away and he did his job and he never lost that niceness about him.”

Strong, an American who grew up watching and listening to Dellacamera, noted that things could’ve been awkward between the two when Strong joined Fox with both men jockeying for some of the same assignments. Instead, the young commentator found that Dellacamera was more than willing to help, not by telling him what to do but rather sharing his own personal experience in situations where it might apply.

Dellacamera utilized the same style in assisting Tony Meola, a former U.S. goalkeeper now working in broadcasting, transition from 18-yard box to broadcast booth. Meola says he never would have been assigned games at the 2018 World Cup without the guidance of the veteran broadcaster.

“It’s been three or four years of learning every single day what the business entails, what it takes to be prepared and what it takes to get to a point where you feel comfortable enough that you can do a good job for the game,” Meola said. “Until I actually did it, you never really know. You think you know, but he showed me different methods, different ways of studying, different ways of prepping and if it wasn’t for him I don’t know that I would’ve been chosen to go to the World Cup.”

He remembers a particularly stressful situation prior to the opening match of this summer’s tournament between Russia and Saudi Arabia when there was an issue with the world feed and a flurry of activity in the broadcast booth. Already nervous ahead of the biggest broadcast of his career, Meola was inspired by Dellacamera’s calm.

“This is our first live hit of the World Cup in the stadium and JP were as calm as if he were on his couch watching his favorite movie,” Meola said. “I was a little bit nervous. You’re getting ready to go out in the entire country. He was calm. I’m trying to take his lead because he’s been here before and he’s seen all this. Had he been rattled at all, I probably would’ve been rattled myself.”

Dellacamera has been through plenty of frustrating moments during his career but said it’s been far more positive than negative. As he’s honored this weekend, the moments like Chastain’s goal, Paul Caligiuri’s ‘shot heard round the world’ in 1989 and all the World Cups far outweigh any missed opportunities for American voices or technical difficulties on site. 

“I don’t know anybody who’s been an announcer for even 20 years let alone much more than that, I don’t know anyone that could say, ‘No, everything’s been great. I never had a a hiccup in the road.’” Dellacamera said. “I think anybody that says that is probably lying. I think if you last as long as I did, I think that means the good has outweighed the bad, and I have no complaints, I have no regrets. it’s been a great career, and I’m not done yet.”

After watching his side soundly beaten 2-0 by Barca in the Champions League, the Serie A side’s manager was not happy

Luciano Spalletti criticised Inter’s passive approach as they lost 2-0 at Barcelona in Group B of the Champions League.

Inter struggled to get a foothold in Wednesday’s contest at Camp Nou despite Barca captain Lionel Messi’s absence due to a fractured arm.

Rafinha, who was on loan at Inter last season, gave Barca a first-half lead and Jordi Alba wrapped it up for the hosts with seven minutes remaining.

And Spalletti was unhappy with the way his Inter team allowed Barca to set the game’s tempo and rhythm, with Arthur giving a midfield masterclass.

“I’m sad mostly because I wanted a totally different approach in the first half,” Spalletti told reporters.

“We were not brave enough to play the ball when we were in possession and we allowed Barcelona to play as they prefer.

“You cannot come here to defend and try to score on one counter-attack, you need to play better with the ball if you want to achieve something in this stadium.

“We didn’t show as much character compared to our first two Champions League games. We weren’t courageous enough and the opposition made the most of our attitude. We didn’t do as much as we can.

“We also could have scored over the course of the game but they were stronger than us and deserved to win. They played well, passing the ball quickly and thinking fast.”

Samir Handanovic made nine saves to keep the score down, while Philippe Coutinho hit the crossbar, but Barca moved three points clear at the top of Group B.

Inter, though, are likely to follow Barca into the next phase as a 2-2 draw between PSV and Tottenham earlier in the day gives the Serie A side a five-point cushion in second spot.

“Obviously we are happy about the result in the other game,” Spalletti added. “But we must focus on the fact that we weren’t at our best. We need to play much better next time because we are a team with ambition.”

Central Coast Mariners, who have offered a contract to Usain Bolt, could not manage a win in their opening A-League game of the season.

Central Coast Mariners drew 1-1 at Brisbane Roar in their opening match of the 2018-19 A-League season.

Mike Mulvey’s side, who have offered a contract to former athletics star Usain Bolt, were denied all three points by a second-half equaliser from Roar debutant Adam Taggart.

The visitors went ahead after only four minutes at Suncorp Stadium when Connor Pain finished a blistering counter-attack in clinical fashion.

Taggart missed a host of chances but eventually drew his side level 20 minutes into the second half, turning sharply in the box before rifling high past goalkeeper Ben Kennedy.

Tony Popovic’s first match in charge of Perth Glory also ended 1-1, as Western Sydney Wanderers claimed a point at nib Stadium.

Andy Keogh’s strike capped the home side’s first-half dominance, and Alex Grant’s header looked destined to double the lead only to crash off the crossbar.

Wanderers levelled just five minutes later, Roly Bonevacia holding off Tomi Mrcela before slotting past Liam Reddy.

Wellington Phoenix joined Melbourne City as the only other side to win in the opening round of matches, after Mark Rudan’s side beat Newcastle Jets 2-1.

The 43-year-old’s first A-League game in charge swung Phoenix’s way 32 minutes in, when Daniel Georgievski’s attempted clearance ended in his own net.

Roy Krishna secured the win in the 89th minute after converting the rebound from his own missed penalty, with Dimitri Petratos’ goal in the fifth minute of injury time serving only as a consolation.

The Reds have an opportunity to return to winning ways when they take on David Wagner’s side in West Yorkshire

Liverpool will attempt to keep the pressure on Manchester City and Chelsea at the top of the Premier League when they face Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are currently unbeaten in the division after eight games, tallying six victories and two draws, but their form had dipped somewhat ahead of the international break.

The Reds have not tasted success in their last four matches in all competitions, so they will be desperate to return to winning ways at John Smith’s Stadium, particularly with Champions League action on the horizon.

Huddersfield, meanwhile, find themselves at the opposite end of the table in the drop zone, without a single win to their name.

In the United States (US), the game can be watched live and on-demand with fuboTV (7-day free trial).

New users can sign up for a free seven-day trial of the live sports streaming service, which can be accessed via iOS, Android, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV as well as on a web browser.

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In the United Kingdom (UK), the game can be watched live on TV on BT Sport 1 and it can be streamed online via the BT Sport app. It can also be followed live on Goal here.

David Wagner has concerns over the fitness of Terence Kongolo, Thomas Smith, Abdelhamid Sabiri and Daniel Williams, who are all recovering from minor injuries.

Potential Huddersfield XI:  Lossl, Hogg, Billing, Mooy, Lowe, Depoitre, Pritchard, Zanka, Schindler, Hadergjonaj, Durm.

The international break has not been kind to Liverpool, with Virgil van Dijk, Naby Keita, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane all suffering injuries while representing their respective countries. Van Dijk and Salah were passed fit to start, but Keita and Mane are absent.

James Milner had been predicted to miss out, but he has overcome a hamstring issue to start, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is still working his way back from a knee injury.

Potential Liverpool XI: Alisson; Gomez, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Lallana, Henderson, Milner; Salah, Shaqiri, Sturridge.

Liverpool are strong favourites to win the game according to bet365, who rate the Reds’ chances at 2/7. Huddersfield are considered a 10/1 bet to win and a draw is available at 4/1.

Click here to see more offers for the game, including goalscoring markets, correct score predictions and more.

Liverpool have been saddled with an injury crisis ahead of their return to Premier League action on Saturday and Klopp will have to reshuffle his deck as they search for their first win in nearly a month.

The Reds have not won a game since beating Southampton 3-0 in September, suffering defeats against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup and Napoli in the Champions League, as well as drawing with the Blues and Man City in the Premier League. However, despite their dip in form, they remain well in the mix at the top half of the table and will be keen to maintain that status.

International commitments have taken their toll on some of Liverpool’s key players, including Mane, Van Dijk and Keita, who are major concerns ahead of Saturday’s showdown in West Yorkshire.

That trio join the likes of Milner and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the sidelines, meaning Klopp will have to turn to fringe players for the upcoming series of fixtures, which includes a Champions League tie against Red Star Belgrade.

On Saturday, Klopp comes up against a familiar face in Wagner and, interestingly, the Huddersfield boss is highly skeptical about the extent to which Liverpool will be shorn of their best players.

“I have known Jurgen long enough, I know he loves to use smoke screens,” Wagner said of his compatriot. “I expect that most of his players will be available.

“I have known him long enough and he likes to moan after the international break!”

Financial and administrative help will be available to those hurt in the escalator collapse in Rome

CSKA Moscow have pledged financial support to fans injured during a crush at a Rome metro station and called for an end to “premature” apportioning of blame.

Dozens of people were sent hurtling into each other when an escalator crumpled prior to the Champions League match between CSKA and Roma on Tuesday.

Italian media reported the malfunction occurred after supporters began to jump on the stairs.

CSKA promised to replace unused airline tickets and to provide “visa and financial support” to those caught up in the incident.

“We’d like to mention that the representatives of the Russian Embassy in Rome and Russian Football Union immediately reacted and are also doing everything possible to help injured people,” read a club statement.

“Medical and police services of Rome, despite the controversial rumours, didn’t leave our citizens without support and tried their best to help them.

“Regarding the various official comments about the reasons of the accident (including the statement about pseudo-fans jumping on the escalator) we think that it’s not the right moment for the premature conclusions.

“Our faithful fans and citizens were hurt, and now the top priority is their health and homecoming.

“It’s up to Rome police authorities to investigate the reasons why the escalator in the underground of one of the global capitals, where hundreds of thousands of people travel every day, collapsed and thus threatened people’s lives.”

CSKA went on to lose the match 3-0 and are now third in Group G.