Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho hints at pairing Paul Pogba with Michael Carrick

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has suggested he plans to pair new signing Paul Pogba with Michael Carrick this season. The Red Devils recently completed the world-record signing of the French midfielder, for a fee of around £89m ($115.3m), and Mourinho has suggested he will line up alongside the United veteran.

Carrick, 35, signed a new deal with the club in the summer and Mourinho admits his intelligence and tactical nous are invaluable to him. The Portuguese said that Pogba will provide more of a box-to-box impact, while Carrick sits in front of United's defence.

"We have Michael Carrick, 34 or 35-year-old-man," he told BT Sport. "Stable, intelligent, to play as one man in front of the defenders, give us all the stability, he knows everything. Tactically very intelligent.

"We have people like Schneiderlin, Herrera, also play as that, they have experience of the Premier League but after that we have Number 10s. Mata we have, we have possibly Rooney, we have Mkhitaryan, we have number 10s."

Mourinho explained that Pogba has filled an obvious hole in the United strong. "We [didn't] have what I used to call the second midfield player," he explained of United's record-breaking recruit.

"The one that is strong enough, is powerful enough, has defensive intensity but at the same time has creativity, has goals, has arrival into finishing areas. He drives the midfield forward. We have passers, we don't have runners with the ball. So he's a profile of player we found."

Carrick has been at United since the summer of 2006 but was not expected to be offered a new contract at the club had Louis van Gaal been retained as their manager, according to the Manchester Evening News. However, he now appears to be an integral part of Mourinho's new-look team, which will also feature the likes of Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.