Between Covid and Euro ... 2021, a giant "puzzle" for Didier Deschamps

It is a special season that awaits Deschamps and the Blues after the Covid-19 crisis.

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At this time of year, if everything had gone as planned in recent months - understand: no pangolin feast or damn Covid-19, and a victory for the Blues in the final of Euro 2020 with a goal of Giroud in extra time against the

- this tricolor rally would have been simply the occasion for reunion between champions with a small soft dip in view of the 2022 World Cup. Instead, Didier Deschamps and the France team attack a season capital for the next staggered European Championship, and the program that awaits them by next June is more akin to the obstacle course than a romantic stroll along the canal.

Between the players absent due to Covid-19 (Paul Pogba, Houssem Aouar), those who are on vacation after the Final 8 in Lisbon (Mbappé, Kimpembe), those who have already resumed the championship (Nzonzi, Camavinga, Dubois, Ikoné, Ben Yedder) and those who are still in the preparation phase (all the others), the coach will have to juggle with his staff to spare both the organizations and the susceptibilities of the coaches whose players have been called up for selection, all by presenting a team capable of bringing back points from Sweden's first trip on Saturday in the League of Nations.

Enough to give you a headache of all the gods.

Take a Doliprane, Didier.

After having communicated his list of 23 for Sweden-France and France-Croatia, Didier Deschamps evokes the health context, his choices for this re-entry camp and the goals of the Blues in the Nations League #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/acwrHaDNjf

- French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) August 28, 2020

The French puzzle

“It's been several months since the Blues have not found each other, they do not all have the same state of physical freshness.

The current context linked to Covid is completely new, the breeders are therefore faced with a scenario that they did not know.

It will be a real headache for DD and his staff, warns Robert Pirès, who will comment on this Sweden-France on Saturday night on M6.

Already, the credit goes to the breeders for having been able to compose selections under these conditions!

I think DD has given us a nice list with nice surprises ”.

As such, the first convocation of Eduardo Camavinga and Dayot Upamecano, or the return of Adrien Rabiot made it possible to forget for a time the bickering between Deschamps and the LFP about the programming of the Lens-PSG match, stalled for two days only after France-Croatia…

The beautiful story behind Camavinga's first license via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/pHO1mFf8EH

- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) September 3, 2020

A calendar incongruity that has driven the coach crazy.

“It's a decision that I found more than surprising: embarrassing.

As if the League was not aware of the international calendar and said to itself "the France team does not count", or else "you do not take the PSG players", he got carried away. press conference.

If there is an athletic concern, I never take a risk, regardless of the player or the club, and I try to remain coherent, understanding, attentive (...) but from the moment a player is fit to play, I am free to manage it as I want.

I am not here to give gifts to anyone.

Mbappé on the ground against Croatia?

We'll see.

I am not constrained to anything.

" 

“I understand that it can annoy him,” Pires engages.

Until the Euro the calendar will be overloaded and the Blues will not have a lot of time to prepare it well.

You have to put yourself in his place ... Already getting out a list in this period is not easy, but if in addition behind the League comes and says "we program you Lens-PSG two days after your match ... No, honestly, doing that is not putting him in the best conditions.

"The case of number 10 is also particularly revealing of the current bazaar: after having resumed training at the beginning of July, followed by prep matches, the cup finals and the Final 8 with PSG, Mbappé will only have had a short week's vacation before resuming the season.

If ever the PSG goes far in C1 and the Blues are fueled by the Euro, Mbappé could potentially live a long season of… Twelve months (July-July, the count is good).

In order not to end up fighting with clubs or authorities, German coach Joachim Löw has made the decision not to call the internationals from Bayern and Leipzig who played a lot in the Final 8 in Lisbon.

“It's a strategy that also holds, validates the former Gunner.

But Deschamps has chosen not to build a list at a discount, he already wants to concern everyone with a view to the Euro.

"

A Euro at a discount?

For the French staff, the priority will therefore be to manage the organizations as well as possible.

How? 'Or' What ?

“Let's say that the idea can be group work depending on the level of form or additional work for certain players after group training.

We are entering much more into the individualization of work.

And it may be like that all season, when we see that every day or so we have new players tested positive for Covid-19… ”breathes Emmanuel Vallance, physical trainer of the VAFC.

Problem, the physical trainers of selections “have less knowledge of the regular activity of the player than we, in the club.

It's easier for us to master everything that involves training since we are constantly in contact with the players.

In selection, a big part of their job is to collect information, data, feelings and it is not always easy.

"

Ideally, clubs and selections should agree to work together to facilitate the communication of information on player form.

"It would be the ideal solution, it's clear, but knowing the way the football world works, I find it hard to believe it, admits Xavier Frezza, another physical trainer working individually with twenty professional players (Ben Yedder, Batshuayi, Mukiele).

We know that club-selection and coach-coach relations are not always in good shape.

Communication between these entities is often limited.

"

The Blues are finally back at Clairefontaine!

🙌🇫🇷 #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/vp0K9WWCyg

- French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) August 31, 2020

Emmanuel Vallance, however, puts a small caveat concerning the internationals playing in the championship of France: “We exchanged a lot between physical trainers during confinement because we were all in the dark.

We have created a WhatsApp group and we have discussed a lot since the start of the health crisis on the issues of the profession, the different working methods, etc.

As the physical trainer of the Blues is also that of FC Nantes and his deputy is in our discussion group, he necessarily has good feedback ”.

The fact remains that most French internationals do not play in Ligue 1 and that the big European clubs have other fish to fry…

Finally, let's not forget that at the end there is a Euro to dispute.

But here too, the vagueness is total.

Are we going to attend a competition at a discount with players on the kneecaps and pull-up injuries?

“It is to be feared, advance Xavier Frezza.

Already during the last major international competitions, I found that the quality of the game had dropped, the players were sticking their tongue out.

They are really subject to a crazy pace.

It may be even more obvious next year ”.

We can not wait to be there ...

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