Thursday, October 03, 2013

Deschamps annouces his list for upcoming matches - with eye towards the World Cup play off

Without too many surprises, Deschamps unveiled his list for the upcoming matches for France - a friendly against Australia and then last group game at home against Finland. Barring any catastrophe against the Nordics, France will then have to wait to see who they get drawn for the November home and away playoff.

The list -

Lloris, Mandanda, Landreau - Evra, Clichy, Abidal, Koscielny, Varane, Sakho, Sagna, Debuchy – Cabaye, Grenier, Matuidi, Pogba, Sissoko - Valbuena, Nasri, Payet, Ribéry, Giroud, Benzema, Rémy 

It is good to see the reintroduction of Varane, it will be interesting to see if the Real Madrid central defender gets put back into his starting role or if the veteran Abidal has usurped him as a start. Or could Kos find his starting role in question? Doubtful. I could see Deschamps experimenting with both combinations in each game - Kos/Abidal and then Kos/Varane.

Newcastle winger Remy is also back in the mix, a good addition since he offers some flexibility with
No Petit Prince in DD set up
regards to the wing and striker positions. My real question is whether or not DD considered bringing back Ben Arfa. The other Newcastle player has shown some real class this year in northern England. I watched a recent match where his play on the right wing was awesome. His pace and shot kept the left back and left half under constant pressure. As a natural left footed player, he is similar in profile as Robben is with Bayern. Opposite Ribery. Ribery a natural right footed player likes the left wing. Robben and Ben Arfa both left footed players like the right wing. They all love staying wide, making pacey runs and cutting in onto their favorite foot. Not sure if the "Petit Prince" has burnt all bridges with both the French national side as well as his former Marseille manager, but I think he offers a real solution to the French right. He can also slot back in the middle of the formation...

I would that DD uses these two matches to work out the kinks and figure out how to be more offensive...and score more goals. Yes they scored 4 in their last match, but once again the strikers were useless! Let us see if DD looks to get something out of Remy ... or we are going to be subjected to more of the same - Payet on the right....Benzema in the middle...and not too many goals.

Allez les bleus.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'd like to see Emmanuel Riviere get a shot. He's having a great year so far with Monaco.

GFC said...

That is a good call, I think there were rumblings that he might get the nod. But Deschamps seems to only feel he needs two strikers - Giroud and Benzema. If he continues to roll out a one striker formation I don't see him needing more than 2 strikers.