GARDIENS : Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Cédric Carrasso (Toulouse)
DÉFENSEURS : Eric Abidal (FC Barcelone/ESP), Gaël Clichy (Arsenal/ANG), Julien Escudé (FC Séville/ESP), Rod Fanni (Rennes), William Gallas (Arsenal/ANG), Philippe Mexès (AS Roma/ITA), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal/ANG), Sébastien Squillaci (FC Séville/ESP).
MILIEUX DE TERRAIN : Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid/ESP), Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon), Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Samir Nasri (Arsenal/ANG), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich/ALL).
ATTAQUANTS : Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea/ANG), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Rennes), Thierry Henry (Barcelone/ESP).
At first pass I like this list...primarily because no Boumsong! Thank goodness. But I know what will happen, one of the defenders will bow out because of injury and Domenech will decide call up the Lyon defender as a replacement and then will play him the full 90 minutes. Ugh.
The Good:
- No Boumsong.
- Carrasso is the only fresh face on the team, but a deserved call up. He has been playing very well for French side TFC. Having looked at Pele from LeMans during the last go around, I will give Domenech credit for using these opportunities to look at different keepers. He clearly will give the keys to the team to either Lloris or Mandanda, but is covering all his bases. As he demonstrated during the Euros, he is not afraid to use the third keeper slot on an up and coming talent.
- Strength at central defense while that is usually not something I will say is the case for Les Bleus recently, having Gallas, Mexes, Squillaci and Escude all together is good. Why? I see the natural pairings of Gallas and Mexes, Squillaci and Escude (both at seville now). Hopefully Domenech will have enough time during the training sessions to see if these two pairings work well. Again no Boumsong makes this a possibility.
- I like the fact Nasri is back in the fold. He has been playing well for the Gunners and deserves the chance to make a case for him to be on one of the wings for Les Bleus.
- No Savidan, while this is not completely unexpected, after his first appearance for Les Bleus you would think he deserved another look. I am not sure that Briand is a better option up front.
- No Vieira, this is not really bad, since Pat has just started training again with Inter. What might be bad is that we may never see Pat again playing for Les Bleus.
- Abidal, I am not sure where he will slot for the team. I have lost faith in his ability to play central defense let alone on the flanks of the defense. I realize that with Clichy, Fanni and Sagna, Domenech goes 2 deep for both the left and right side of the defense. However since this is a friendly and in a pinch he can slot Diarra on the right or left of the defense why not take this as a chance to look at another defender, maybe Adil Rami from Lille.
- Surprisingly I do not see any real ugliness with this selection. Of course this will change if anyone drops out and Domenech decides to call up his binky - Boumsong.
Keeper: Mandanda (or Lloris) - both are solid, neither has solidified his role as #1.
Defenders: Clichy, Gallas, Mexes, Sagna - I think it makes sense to play 3/4 of the Arsenal defense. It will be important to see if Mexes and Gallas can work together in the middle.
Holding midfielders: LDiarra, Toulalan - this should be the holding duo for the next few years for Les Bleus. ADiarra, Flamini and eventually Blaise Matuidi will be capable second in commands.
Attacking midfielders: Nasri, Gourcuff, Ribery - I would like to see these three on the pitch together, althought I can also see Henry slot back on the left wing.
Striker: Benzema - This might be a tough call, Anelka could easily slot in this spot or Henry, depending on whether or not Titi will slot back to the left side. However I think that the young french star should be given the chance to lead the attack.
This will be a very difficult game, Argentina is bringing their big guns - Messi, Tevez, Aguero, Gago, Mascherano, Zanetti to name a few. The test for Les Bleus will be how will the defense hold up against the dangerous Argentine attack. This will start with Toulalan and Diarra, if they can hold the midfield and slow down the attacks through the midfield the back 4, which is shaky, will have less pressure. I also think this will hinge on how well Gourcuff can hold the ball up front and control the tempo of the game, I am sure he will be matched up against a Mascherano, this will be a stern test for the young Girodin.
I think this is a good test for both sides. Unfortunately for Les Bleus I still think there are too many questions of the defense. Facing such South American fire power will see a similar result as last time they faced off - Argentina 2 France 1 - Messi and Tevez for Argentina, Nasri for France.
2 comments:
Frog, nice post. I'm impressed with the balance across leagues in the squad. A nice base of France-based players, a good showing from Spain and a token from Germany and Italy and of course the London crew.
One quibble: I've been watching a lot of Barca this year (b/c they're so much fun to watch), and Abidal is a totally different player from last year. His crosses look much better, and he covers so much ground behind Titi, that he really enables them to play such an attacking style. What I couldn't figure out with them scoring all these goals and having all these attacking players, was how they didn't get exposed all the time. Really, it seems to come down to Abidal, YaYa/Kieta and the center-backs covering acres of space, b/c Alves, Iniesta, Xavi, Titi, Messi and Eto'o really don't track back all that much. So I give props to Abidal this year...
Good input, I would argue that what I have seen from Abidal is when he is wearing the France kit, in those situations he is shaky at best. I agree he has done much better for Barca. I do not trust him bringing that game to Les Bleus, but I hope you're right!
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