Thursday, July 29, 2010

Laurent Blanc looking at some fresh faces for Aug 11th match vs Norway

The news is trickling out of Clairfontaine as to who Laurent Blanc will be taking to Scandinavia to face Norway. New faces N'Zogbia and Menez appear to be on the list as well as Domenech outcast - Mexes. Blanc must have read this blog! Since these are all players I had on my list. Blanc also has leaned heavily on the Lille team, calling up 5 of their players (Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye, Rio Mavuba, Mathieu Debuchy et Florent Balmont) However this list does not include Landreau...interesting. Clearly Blanc will leverage his intimate knowledge of Ligue 1 for his roster. With the likes of Cabaye, Mavuba, Debuchy and Balmont the France team in Norway might have a very strong Lille flavor in the midfield.

Good to see some new faces being called to the squad. Clearly demonstrates the wealth of depth France can call upon. The challenge will be how will Blanc integrate some of these new faces with the World Cup 23 that will be coming back eventually. However I have faith that Blanc can rise to this challenge unlike his predecessor.

2 comments:

jean-Francois said...

Bonjour M. Courtin. Nice read, I must say N'Zogbia is a suprise to me. I hope he calls up some U19 players. I think Lacazette could be very useful for the team.

GFC said...

N'Zogbia had shown well for the youth French teams. I think he was not looked at by Domenech because a)Domenech is a moron b)there was already a lot of options on the left (Henry, Ribery and Malouda).

The nice part of N'Zogbia's game is he can also slot at left back. He deserves a look by Blanc, not certain he will make himself a pillar of the team but he should be someone France can leverage moving forward. The interesting fact is that the English tried to call him up since he now has English residency. The Congo national team also tried to select him since his family is from the Congo, he did turn down that selection.

As for the U19s, I think there is a chance to see some of them, I think the most likely player is Kakuta who could get a look. Lacazette, Griezmann or Sunu might also get a look since France is a little thin in terms of forwards. After Benzema, who are the strikers that are truly at that level? Briand, Gomis, Hourau? All nice players but none have really taken the next step to replace the likes of Henry.