Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Best wishes for rapid recovery for Abidal - opens door for Evra and FFF?

The latest from Barcelona is that their left back , Eric Abidal, will be operated for a liver tumor. All reports point to his ability to have a normal recovery and will be back on the pitch in a reasonable time frame. That is the essential and we wish Eric the best of luck and speedy recovery. Of course his absence prior to Blanc's list for the upcoming matches against Luxembourg and Croatia opens an interesting question: will Evra be brought back into the fold?

Next FFF left back?
Blanc had clearly slotted Abidal as his starting left back, and I would assume that once Abidal is back on the pitch he will continue to assume that slot. However in the short term who will be in that position? Based on the prior matches it would appear that the Gunner's left back Clichy will be given the starting role. But what about Evra? Will the Manchester United left back find his way back onto the list. Other alternatives - Tremoulinas (played under Blanc at Bordeaux) or Cissokho from Lyon. I think that Blanc will take this as a chance to call up Tremoulinas and at some level I think that the competition for the #2 left back is open, I am not convinced that Clichy has a lock on that spot. Tremoulinas has more of an offense minded game and has more consistency when it comes to his crosses than his Arsenal counterpart. I do think that Blanc sees Evra as the center piece of what transpired in South Africa last summer and is not convinced he would be a welcome presence in the French dressing room. We will see tomorrow when Blanc unveils his list.

Best of luck to Abidal and wishes for a rapid recovery.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

both evra and ribery were called up. it will be interesting to see who blanc starts, since evra is in better form than clichy and ribery is probably in better form than malouda. luxembourg is very weak, so i wouldn't be surpried to see a 4-3-3 with a diarra-gouruff-nasri midfield, malouda as LW, and ribery as RW.

Anonymous said...

I would add Jeremy Mathieu as a contender for an opportunity at left back.

GFC said...

I think that Mathieu has always been on the outside looking in. Had the talent but never seemed to be able to own that role. I think that the competition at left back is deep for France and that has hurt him as well. Also when he played in Ligue 1 he would slot up at left half back and I think that diluted his resume.

He is having a decent season in Spain but I just think a though time for him to try and break into the French national team at lb.