A summer like no other is on the horizon, if the notion of “normal” still means anything.
The appearance of the Covid two years ago prompted European and world football decision-makers to rethink their calendars even before this year 2022, which has long been shaping up to be special due to its winter World Cup.
One more parameter to manage for Didier Deschamps and the France team in their defense of the hard-won world title four years ago.
The preparation will go through the defense of another title, a little more incidental, although the players seem (officially) to hold on to this League of Nations before the first match against Denmark.
Benjamin Pavard did not seem to be pretending when he said, on Wednesday, in front of the cameras posted at Clairefontaine, that he "still wanted to win this title".
On the other hand, we can doubt his sincerity when he says he tries hard not to "think too much about the World Cup".
With all due respect for the Masters League and for Benjamin, we have a little too many kilometers on the clock to see in this summer tour anything other than a penultimate rehearsal for Qatar.
One question nevertheless arises: whatever lessons we draw from these four games, will they still have any value in the fall?
The holidays, mowers of legs and psychological dynamics, good or bad, will have passed by there, and in September, DD will only have two League of Nations games left to adjust its group according to the various states of form.
How then to use this start of the League of Nations to prepare for the 2022 World Cup?
Revive some executives in turmoil
If the smell of blood has prompted more than one to smell a possible rise in tension – which DD hastened to defuse – between Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé after the extension of the young striker at Paris Saint-Germain, the reasons of concern are perhaps more on the pitch than off.
Starting with the state of form of the other executives of the team.
Less than six months from the World Cup, a small list of major blue players on the street or at best irregular that Deschamps will have to revive.
Griezmann:
the short hair effect did not last long for Grizou, back at Atlético de Madrid after a painful desert crossing in Barcelona.
His 7-goal season in Diego Simeone's MMA team does not bode well, even if we are talking about a player who we are used to seeing perform more easily in Blue in recent years.
Hoping that this year defending more than necessary with the Colchoneros makes him want to play higher with the EDF.
More goals and fewer tackles, please Antoine.
Varane:
also to be ranked among the players who know how to be good in Blue even when things are less strong at club level, Varane had the least full season of his career.
Admittedly, defending with Harry Maguire is at least as hard as swimming with 100 kg weights on your feet.
But the stopper of the Blues has played ten games fewer than in previous seasons, due to repeated injuries, and his level oscillates between good and bad.
The superstition team will nevertheless be delighted to learn that the last time Varane had a season with less than 30 league games was in 2017-2018.
Kanté:
electric battery on alternating current, one wonders if N'Golo has not flirted with burnout by dint of being too nice.
Tuchel has often put him on the bench, but Deschamps is counting on him.
It's up to him to revive him enough so that he refrains from making dice passes to his opponents as in the C1 quarter-final return against Real Madrid.
Pogba:
calf injury for too many months and at the end of the cycle at Manchester United.
Most concerning of all in the sense that he is absent from the longest rally before Qatar and his form in December will depend on his club performance.
The likelihood of having a Pogba at 2018 level is getting smaller as the days go by.
(Bonus) Rabiot:
very good start to finish eternal hope, no phew to Juve, are we still really expecting something from Adrien?
By continuing to test new
In the continuity of his list for March, Didier Deschamps recalled Christopher Nkunku and Jonathan Clauss, the hits of the year in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. A training midfielder, the first returned at the start of the week to his transformation by attacking .
“My positioning on the pitch is closer to the goal.
I was more driven to finish actions or be on the last pass.
Mentally, I have passed a course.
I'm a little more of a killer.
Which can make him a good complement to the Mbappé, Griezmann and Benzema trident.
The next matches can help him find his place in this attack, where it is not said that the regulars, in particular Benzema, chain the minutes without counting.
As for Clauss, it will be a question of continuing to show that he is the only right-back not to be only an option by default.
His recall by DD makes one happy by ricochet: Benjamin Pavard.
The Bayern defender is now to be placed in the central defender category.
"I've always said it was my job since I was little," said the Munich resident.
The bad news being that the competition is stronger in the center where Koundé and more recently William Saliba have appeared.
Interception → Goal
⚡️ @MoussaDiaby_19 ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/epC1G7M4Sx
– French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) May 30, 2022
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In the rookies category, we can also always count Moussa Diaby, five selections on the clock.
He is counting on it in any case: "I am trying to integrate myself little by little and confirm that I am here for good reasons", declared the winger of Bayer, Wednesday afternoon, not worried about not having not yet opened his counter in Blues.
"I don't think I'm playing big on this rally," he continues.
I want to reproduce what I do in the club, to bring in my percussion, to have a little more influence in the game. It will come little by little.
Be careful not to hang around too much, though.
The World Cup is coming fast.
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