France v Poland: Welcome to some new faces

No surprise, but Laurent Blanc announced that the players he has not used over the past 2 matches will start for the final friendly before the summer break: Carrasso in goal, N'Zogbia and Valbuena in midfield and Hourau at striker. Question remains who else will start and what formation with Blanc look to leverage?

I have a feeling he will lean on a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1. I am not sure he wants to have Hourau as the lone striker so look for the former to be employed. N'Zogbia wide left with Valbuena on the right, the central midfield I could see Martin coupled with Matuidi, M'Vila or maybe even Cabaye. The front two will be Hourau and Gameiro, with the defense similar to the last match. Get Sakho another run out in the center of defense with Kaboul as his partner. Reveillere and Evra holding the wide roles. Finally Carrasso in goal. A more offensive leaning formation, which will place an increased amount of pressure on whomever is the holding midfielder.

It will be interesting to see how Martin does after his coming out party against Ukraine. Let us hope he can build upon his showing.

Allez les Bleus.

No surprise - third keeper for France v Poland this Thursday

Le President announced that his keeper from Bordeaux will get the nod this Thursday against Poland. Not a big surprise at all; however, after a poor goal given up against Ukraine, I am beginning to question whether or not the hierarchy in goal is written in stone. Mandanda has had a great season for OM, but I feel as if his latest showing for France puts him a bit on shaky ground. What about the likes of Landreau with LOSC? Or Ruffier at Monaco?

Lloris remains the #1 choice but I would not close the door on looking at picking 2 from the 4 keepers: Mandanda, Carrasso, Ruffier and Landreau for the other spots.

Carrasso out? Let us hope Les Bleus don't need their 3rd string keeper...

Latest news from the French camp is that 3rd choice keeper - Carrasso - has a leg injury that might keep him out of the remainder of the World Cup.  Of course I have stated before that the 3rd string keeper is the loneliest role on the squad and the majority of the time no one is going to know who that keeper is, let us hope for Les Bleus that this is the only time we speak of the 3rd keeper! Wonder who would be the emergency keeper...let's not think about that.

France World Cup squad - Part 1 - Goalkeepers

And away we go....first part of what should be 4 parts on who should head to South Africa for Les Bleus. I will break up my discussion into who should go and who Domenech will call up on the 11th. The basics:

• 23 total players
• Probable breakdown - 3 keepers, 8 defenders, 7 midfielders and 5 strikers
• I categorize players such as Malouda and Ribery as midfielders, they are wingers which to me is a midfield position
• I will assume that Domenech will favor the 4-2-3-1 formation

So with these ground rules let us jump into who the keepers will be for Les Bleus -

Who Should Go:

• Hugo Lloris (Lyon): Can you really argue with the Lyon keeper? I will admit I had doubted him when he was first called up as the France #1, I felt that Frey was the deserved #1 for Les Bleus. However the matches against Ireland in the play off as well as how he has played for Lyon, clearly makes him the undisputed #1 for France and I would argue one of the top 5 keepers in the world currently. He can steal games on his own and with a questionable defense in front of him might be called upon to do so! A no-brainer.
• Steve Mandanda (Marseilles): He was the surprise call up in 2008 for the Euros making the squad as the #3 keeper behind Coupet and Frey. This was a major surprise since Landreau was always seen as the 3 member of the France goalkeeping roster. Post Euro he was given the first shot at securing the #1 spot, while his performances were not terrible they did nothing to cement himself in that role. He is a strong shot stopper but I question his ability to command his area. While I do not think he could cost France a game he will not win one either...making him a #2 at best or the out right #1 for England were he British.
• Mickael Landreau (Lille): The aforementioned former France #3 should be back in the squad as the #2...he has had a very solid season for Lille the reason why the Northern France club is sitting in 3rd place. Let us face it....the only reason Landreau was dropped from the national team is only known to Domenech, the play on the field did not diminish to a point that he should be banished to the waste lands. Maybe he did not have the proper astrological sign for Domenech.  I think the 30 year old would welcome a trip to South Africa, even if it means he will be sitting in the stands or on the replacement bench. However since his days at Nantes he has been nothing but the consummate professional and his experience will be invaluable for Lloris and Mandanda.

Who Domenech will take:

• Lloris - Even Domenech knows that the Lyon man is France's clear #1
• Mandanda - No reason to change now...
•  Carasso (Bordeaux) - Domenech will probably forget to read the papers to learn that the Bordeaux keeper has a number of injuries keeping him out of action. At least this is the #3 keeper spot and if Les Bleus need to play him ... well they have bigger problems!

Other keepers that might get a look:

• Ruffier (Monaco) - he has been outstanding in a number of matches this season. Watch what he did against PSG earlier in the season as well as this past weekend in the finals of the France Cup. He is also getting scouted by some big European clubs, he should be in the conversation for the national team.
• Janot (St Etienne) - the 32 year old is probably too "old" to get his first call up for France to head to South Africa, but the tattooed headed keeper has played very well the past few seasons.

Domenech announces his list for the Argentina match

Domenech finally announced his list for the upcoming match up against the Albicelestes. Here is who we will be seeing on the Marseilles pitch -

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.

The Bad:

• 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.
  

The Ugly:

• 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.

Overall there are no real surprises on this roster. I think the team will have a very familiar feel, with a 4-2-3-1 formation -

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.