FRANCE: THE TEAM OF THE FUTURE WITH A MANAGER OF THE PAST
Didier Deschamps doesn't like being wrong, in fact many would think the cold-blooded manager would rather eat a child's face than admit wrongdoing as the decision maker of the French national team, however in the 2-0 loss to Turkey, the tepid 2-0 victory over Bolivia and the 2-0 defeat to the Dutch in Nations League play, Deschamps wasn't only wrong: he was catastrophically out of touch.
Starting a 30+ year old defensive midfielder at left wing (Blaise Matuidi) may have helped them barely scrape past Belgium, Uruguay and Croatia in a cynical, negative set of tactics in the 2018 World Cup, but now this boring and beyond conservative setup has been found out by Turkey's Cengiz Under and Memphis Depay leading the Dutch national team in the 2-0 Nations League defeat (and Matuidi in this left wing / extra mid/ wing-back role also led to a dire 0-0 draw with Germany that left us begging for quality).
Not only is this the worst way to set up a team with such a bevy of truly world class options in every position, it's a maniacally stupid way to go about the business of qualifying for Euro 2020 when you have such world class (yet largely unproven) specimen at your disposal: Nabil Fekir, Thomas Lemar, Ousmane Dembele, Kingsley Coman, Florian Thauvin, Anthony Martial and Alexandre Lacazette, all of whom are capable of running the show from the area Matuidi clogged up.
Even if Deschamps wanted to remain conservative and was too afraid to put four all-out attackers on the pitch at once, there's better options: the mere fact he may be too "scared" to put four highly versatile attacking players out there together (without the bulging bullshit of Olivier Giroud to get in the way) means the job has outgrown Deschamps.For France to have such names as Lacazette, Martial, Payet, Moussa Dembele, Houssem Aouar, Moussa Diaby, Sebastian Haller all missing from the squad completely (for the last World Cup and recent appearances) points to the absurd attacking quality at his current command and yet Deschamps uses a 30+ year old midfielder as part of a collapsed front three / midfield four?
This was exposed brutally in that qualifying match when Turkey dominated proceedings to the tune of a 2-0 victory over France, relegating Deschamps' squad to 2nd place in the group standings at such an early phase.
The complete attacking responsibilities fell to Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe, especially when Giroud was easily marked out of the game; while the duo of Griezmann and Mbappe have assisted many goals together, they weren't up to the task of combining (nor should they be capable) of taking on a highly organized and well drilled Turkish team by themselves.
After all, this is a team game and the midfield of Les Blues was a ponderous stew of shit, being pressed and canceled out for most of the match and showing a complete dearth of energy or incision, affecting the anonymous final third.
And since Turkey have talents such as Cengiz Under, Calhanoglu, Tosun etc, Turkey was and is sprinkled with enough world class talent in the right areas to beat the world champs.
This was nearly found out by Belgium and Uruguay in the 2018 World Cup when a listless France relied on Griezmann's underrated world class set pieces, Griezmann (once again) creating own goals, Mbappe earning penalties and other opposition errors to get through to the final, and little else.
While it makes some sense for caution in these big matches in tournaments, France would've been a far more cohesive and entertaining unit all around had they used another winger and went with a proper front three (or four).
I have found the perfect solution and proper balance for France's attack in the coming Euro 2020 tournament, and though two of these players haven't helped their case with frequent injuries that keep them from playing internationally, the best formation for France to pull off a 20 year anniversary sequel to the Les Blues teams of 1998 and 2000: a front four of Mbappe up top at left forward, Griezmann at center forward, Nabil Fekir as a hard working, hard running center attacking mid behind Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele out on the right wing.
This is a highly versatile foursome that possesses world class finishing, creativity and pace from all four players, each one containing a slightly different profile from each other and complimenting one another like hand in glove: Griezmann can retreat to an attacking midfield role and let Dembele and Mbappe run beyond him, Dembele and Mbappe can swap wings, Fekir has always played under and alongside a striking partner (feeding off central interchangeable movement, example: vs Man City) and anyone fearing Mbappe's finishing isn't as sharp from the left didn't see his outrageous chip over the Andorran keeper, a move generated, pulsated and finished all from him cutting inside on to his right foot from wide left.
We already know about Mbappe and Griezmann's beautiful and prolific partnership, but we've seen very little of the explosive fireworks that Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe provided countless times against England in the summer of 2017, Mbappe setting up Dembele's first France goal (and combining for another shot from Dembele that was turned in by Djibril Sidibe on the rebound) and the pair lightning up the English side and cutting through them with thrust, power and drive that felt like the new dynamic duo of world football.
But thanks to injuries, poor performances and Deschamps' idiotic selections, Ousmane Dembele hasn't seen the pitch alongside Kylian Mbappe for more than 3 total starts in 3 years, only 1 match featuring Griezmann, Dembele and Mbappe together (pre-World Cup friendly vs Italy) & the first two players scored on that day, with France scoring 2 goals inside of 30 minutes.
As for Lyon's Nabil Fekir?
Other than garbage minutes in the World Cup, the only matches this foursome has been fit enough to play together was vs Ireland and the USA before the last World Cup, with Dembele and Fekir on the pitch for the only sustained amount of time during the second half.
As for all four of MGFD, the group have never been on the pitch at one time.
Deschamps has always been blind to these four playing together, often subbing one out for the other and breaking any chance at continued chemistry and opting for the set-in-stone snooze-fest and toothless grind of Olivier Giroud's floundering misadventures.
It's about time Deschamps realizes the talent at his feet and actually plays a front four of MGFD which would then get the best out of his entire team.If we'd finally see dinosaurs like Giroud, Matuidi and Moussa Sissoko finally pushed to the side in favor of this unbelievable group of young talent, France would be setting themselves up mightily to usurp Spain's 2008-2012 run of three consecutive titles.
The depth in France's squad is truly astonishing, untouched by any other team in world football history in the vast array of bona fide world class talents and potential in every position on the pitch...more than enough to absorb a few catastrophes during tournaments unlike any other national team before them: this is a unit that lost both of their starting center backs prior to Euro 2016 (Varane, Sakho), then a 3rd (Rami) and still made it through to the final with their 3rd string center back Samuel Umtiti's first international cap coming in the Quarterfinals vs Iceland and 2nd vs Germany, the Barca man rising to the pressure and occasion like French players have to...simply put: if they don't in big moments, they usually aren't seen again.
This is a group that had its world class fullbacks (Benjamin Mendy and Djibril Sidibe) both unfit approaching last World Cup and were replaced by versatile natural center backs Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez, both of whom became two of the most important players in their World Cup run (Pavard scoring the goal of the tournament and Hernandez dishing 2 assists in the 2 toughest matches vs Croatia & Argentina, and both players successfully deputizing).
After all, this is a team who's basis was formed post-2014 World Cup when Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena had some sex tape shenanigans ruin their international careers...this has always been a team where one can be replaced...there isn't just two or three world class players ready to take your place if you leave it: there's fifteen or twenty. And Deschamps has never been afraid to close the door on such match-winning (or at least big name) talents as Benzema, Franck Ribery, Hatem Ben Arfa, Adrien Rabiot, Samir Nasri, Mahmadou Sakho, Valbuena or even Dimitri Payet; however this steely mindset has also cost the team: someone like Franck Ribery coming from the bench would've been a stunning asset in Euro 2016 against the rugged defenses of Portugal in the final and the nervy encounters with smaller nations in the group stage; Karim Benzema was involved in 8 goals in 5 matches at the 2014 World Cup, an obvious match-winner who was gutted from the international scene right at the time he was taking flight, another casualty lost to the wealth of riches in the Les Blues squad that have blinded and distracted Deschamps from the hardcore (especially in Benzema & Valbuena's cases🤣🤣🤣) truth.
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| Deschamps had no problem icing Ribery from the 2014WC squad |
If you say something Deschamps takes issue with or are even slightly hurt or out of sorts, you won't be picked by Deschamps (when he brought Sidibe and Mendy to the World Cup, both slightly unfit, it showed how highly he rates the former Monaco pair to make such an exception).
Nothing is currently too amiss with this team, yet we feel that if Deschamps is unable to progress and develop such outrageous top players like Fekir, Dembele, both Mendys and Sidibe, while also refraining from such conservative tactics that hampers the overall squad, then he should be replaced with someone who will.
No...France doesn't need to score 5-7 goals per match to make us feel like they're delivering on their "so-good-it's-nearly-comical" world class potential (and as Deschamps brutally put across in the World Cup: style points never trump pure titles); they don't need to blow everyone to pieces nor do they have to prove much to us as a footballing unit as far as results, but there is no identity to this French side under Deschamps: at one point they're completely devoid of attacking pulse (v Uruguay, Australia, Peru, Denmark, Belgium) and then on another hand they've been involved in some of the best goalfests in recent memory (the WC final vs Croatia, the 4-3 win over Argentina, the 5-2 blitzkrieg over the Swiss in 2014, 5-2 over Iceland at Euro 2016).This bi-polarity in the team comes from such a random usage of players: Ben-Yedder comes on, then Kurzawa at left back or no today we'll play Digne, or no Ferland Mendy, or in midfield we'll have Tolisso and Kante, no Ndombele, Sissoko etc etc...the number of combinations at hand is insane...which is why it makes sense for Deschamps to remain steadfastly loyal to players like Griezmann, Pogba or Giroud in his half-hearted quest for some form of continuity even at the cost of his team.
What you have is one squad that can be many, many different teams in one: measured and reserved with Matuidi, Digne, Pavard and Giroud in the lineup, or outrageously open and offensive when either Mendy is on the left, Pogba is in the mood and Griezmann and Mbappe are joined by the young attacking players (Fekir, Lemar, Dembele etc).
There's no identity to this French team. They neither go looking for the ball or soak up pressure from deep, they can pass out of the back without staying magnetized to that style of play, and they don't press with a frenzied finesse: they seem to do all of these things as the players so choose and when required, with Deschamps later making judgments based upon their mentality on the pitch, adjusting his formations and lineups only marginally when talking tactics (usually the player subbed on brings the change in tactics: example: he doesn't say France must possess more, he'll simply sub Tolisso on the pitch; if they need the ball wider, he throws on a wide man). Instead of developing his tactics on the fly concerning which personnel are available, Deschamps could be operating around a system based on a style of play that he can then choose personnel to fit that identity, even if Deschamps wants that identity to be a faceless chameleon that alters their plan moment to moment, substitution by substitution.
There's nothing cerebral about Deschamps...there doesn't have to be, he can be how he likes, but the constant pragmatism and conservatism doesn't bring France victories, these players do; there is a lot of papering over the cracks with Les Blues thanks to the bevy of otherworldly talent at their disposal, yet there's an arrogance that goes along with this talent and when coupled with Deschamps pragmatic philosophy, things get muddied.
What you now have is a mercenary mentality that wins out on the pitch: individual players with their own designs, their own varying needs to prove their worth, all world class Frenchmen in their own right, with their own style of playing and talent level. Yet if there was an identity, a cohesive function of play (aka A PLAN) then France would be an even more formidable unit.If Deschamps could instill a possession-oriented route to goal with ample build-up from the back, use the front four of MGFD and a slightly unbalanced midfield two (Pogba alongside of Kante, though slightly ahead while the Chelsea man is more or less a central defensive midfielder or pivote) we'd see the circus act version of France...the team we only see in bits and pieces.
With an identity, this squad should win every World Cup or European Championship for the next 10-12 years, given the fact that Griezmann is only 27 and has more than 5 years left in him at the highest levels; captain and top goalkeeper (when he's not drunk) Hugo Lloris is on the cusp of 30 (still young for a keeper); Pogba, Varane and Kante are in their mid-20s and the litany of high-flying young guns are still babies hovering around 18-21 (22-23 at most), it wouldn't be insane to speculate that they'll either be winning every one of those tournaments or at least play in the finals itself, even with major injuries befalling their biggest stars.Mind you this squad already has a World Cup and some of them played in the Euro 2016 final, yet without any fear or reservation I'll say that's exactly where they should be; And though they aren't displaying a content idiocy since the World Cup victory, they haven't shown a sustained hunger or intensity, even in matches vs Andorra or Moldova: They've simply mirrored their manager by producing arrogant, "professional" and somewhat bland performances as a collective that showed more signs of negative inner-squad competition and a lack of overall drive, with some paradoxical world class quality to top it off.
However, if this squad fails to win another international title as long as Mbappe, Pogba, Fekir and Dembele are there, history will remember their failure as one born from fear and anxiety...caused by the person at the reigns spilling the ahuyasca, committing the ultimate party foul: someone in charge who never understood quite what this was all about and what it could be.By
Lonn Phillips Sullivan 2019
BEST XI
GK LLORIS
RB SIDIBE
CB VARANE
CB UMTITI
LB BENJAMIN MENDY
DM KANTE
CM POGBA
CAM FEKIR
RF / RW DEMBELE
LF / CF MBAPPE
CF / CAM GRIEZMANN
PLAN B XI
GK LLORIS
RB PAVARD
CB VARANE
CB LAPORTE
LB FERLAND MENDY
DM KANTE
CM POGBA
CAM / CF GRIEZMANN
RW DEMBELE
CF MBAPPE
LAM / LW LEMAR
B XI
GK AREOLA
RB PAVARD
CB LAPORTE
CB LUCAS HERNANDEZ
LB FERLAND MENDY
DM NDOMBELE
CM TOLISSO
CAM LEMAR
CF LACAZETTE
RW THAUVIN
LW COMAN
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