Welcome to the "Frog," my little piece of cyberspace to talk about my passion - le foot (or soccer for my North American friends) especially anything around French football. Of course I will have some guest contributors that might want to discuss other aspects of footy!
I support Les Bleus, Arsenal and PSG but really just love watching, analyzing and following the beautiful game.
"You have to trust your teammates, always. If not we are lost."
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Les Bleus back to the future...with a twist
The noise coming out of Clairefontaine is that Blanc is potentially going with old faithful the: 4-2-3-1. Yes that formation that Domenech stuck with doggedly for too long, however there is a twist! It appears that Blanc will align M'Vila next to Gourcuff as the 2 sitting in front of the defense. Well that is interesting. Something this blog has been advocating for!
Get Gourcuff deeper into the Pirlo role. M'Vila has demonstrated that he can shoulder the responsibility of being the lone holding player, with Gourcuff lying deeper they can work together to organize counters from deeper in the park. Add to this the offensive ability of Mexes and you have options for counters coming quickly from the French defensive 1/3. The 3 midfield players would appear to be Malouda - Nasri - Valbuena. The two wide players bring pace and understanding to maintain and bringing width to the team. The question will be can Nasri and Gourcuff coexist in a formation that might find them in the same space during the game. Benzema up top as the solo striker worked well at Bosnia, let us hope it continues to flourish. The back line remains what we expect, other than Reveillere replacing Sagna on the right. Otherwise it will be Clichy on the left with Mexes - Rami in the center and Lloris in goal.
If this is the line up that walks out onto the grounds of Stade de France I will be very interested in watching a few things: how Nasri and Gourcuff coexist, can M'Vila hold up the holding role or will someone lying deep, but is not defensive minded, distract him from his task (see how M'Vila's game dropped off a little in the second half of the Norwary game when Lass shouldered him deep), will Valbuena offer a constant offensive threat from the right flank and finally can Benzema continue to build on his Bosnia performance.
I am very encouraged to seeing Blanc looking to get his most talented offensive players on the pitch together. I think what M'Vila has shown on the pitch, gives Blanc the confidence that the young midfielder can handle the responsibilities of being the lone holding midfielder. With a deep lying Gourcuff, an inform Nasri and Malouda, the counters and offense can be initiated from a variety of locations on the pitch.
The Romania game will be very interesting to watch!
Allez les Bleus
2 comments:
Philip
said...
I think Benzema is very good when he is a lone strker. That is what he did in Lyon and he was scoring all the time.
He was but I might argue that his best years with Lyon were when he had Fred as a strike partner. Fred who was a more static striker but played higher on the pitch therefore drawing defenses deeper allowing Benzema to have more room to operate. I do think with this formation and with Benzema as the lone striker he has the freedom to roam, might not have as much space but you hope that Valbuena and Malouda wide will bring him that space. We shall see.
2 comments:
I think Benzema is very good when he is a lone strker. That is what he did in Lyon and he was scoring all the time.
Allez les bleus!!!!
He was but I might argue that his best years with Lyon were when he had Fred as a strike partner. Fred who was a more static striker but played higher on the pitch therefore drawing defenses deeper allowing Benzema to have more room to operate. I do think with this formation and with Benzema as the lone striker he has the freedom to roam, might not have as much space but you hope that Valbuena and Malouda wide will bring him that space. We shall see.
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