A lacklustre performance from midfielder Pogba in France’s warm-up friendly against Russia 2018 absentees Italy in Nice last week caused some concern.
Samuel Umtiti, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele scored for Les Blues at the Allianz Riviera where Pogba was far from his best.
But Deschamps jumped to his defence on Friday, ahead of France’s friendly in Lyon on Saturday against the United States, another team who have been World Cup regulars but have missed out of qualifying this time.
He said of Pogba’s showing against Italy: “He knows it, I’ve spoken to him, that it wasn’t his best match, that’s for sure.”
But Deschamps added: “I know that we speak about Paul a lot. Effectively he’s a midfielder, he’s not a number 10, he’s not a forward. He can score and help others to score.