Beaten without a fight in Denmark on Sunday evening, the France team played its last match before flying to the World Cup in Qatar.
Despite the victory against Austria on Thursday, the Blues remain on a series of pitiful matches and show a worrying form a month and a half before the World Cup.
Game system, state of mind, physical form, atmosphere at the FFF, nothing seems to be going right now for the reigning world champions.
Is it serious doctor ?
Coué method or ostrich policy?
In the wake of the Gloubi-boulga offered by the survivors of the France team in Denmark, Sunday evening, for this last match before the World Cup, the Blues sang the same refrain in chorus: EVERYTHING IS WELL.
From Antoine Griezmann, who is "not at all worried" after the Danish slap, to Aurélien Tchouaméni, who prefers to highlight "the collective match" three days ago against Austria, via Didier Deschamps, who sees in this non-match a simple "booster shot" before flying off to the desert, everyone assured that there was no danger in the house.
And yet... On the eve of an unprecedented World Cup where the only preparation will consist in putting your suitcases at the foot of your bed and trotting quickly around the field to recover from the championship match played in club the day before the day before, the there are plenty of reasons to eat your fingernails down to your knuckles.
With this nagging question that hasn't left us since Sunday: wouldn't everything be in place to trip over the carpet properly on the Doha side?
Worst series since General De Gaulle
Numbers first.
What are they telling us?
That since 1958 the France team has never achieved such a series of
loses
before flying off to a World Cup.
With only one victory in six games (for three defeats and two draws), the current dynamic of the Blues does not really lend itself to optimism.
And as if that weren't enough, our friends at Opta are adding to it this morning by recalling that, excluding friendly matches, France have lost three matches in 2022, equaling (already) their worst total over a calendar year, tied with 1966, 1981, 2008 and 2010-apocalyptic year.
3 - France have lost 3 competitive matches in 2022 (3 times in the Nations League), this is already their worst total in a calendar year (tied with 1966, 1981, 2008 and 2010).
Pessimism.
#DANFRA pic.twitter.com/sA2vmqaWza
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) September 25, 2022
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Spirit of 2018, where are you?
Beyond the figures, already not very fiddly, it is the general impression left by this team that concerns us today.
Apart from the recent victory in Austria, the French team displays a level of play that is worrying to say the least, as the excuse of cascading absences is rendered ineffective as long as we remember that it is with its typical team that the Blues sank at the Stade de France, last June, against these same Danes.
You will tell us that we did not need to play it samba
do Brazil
to be crowned world champion in Russia four years ago.
Not false.
The problem is that what was the strength of this team – its grinta, its fiery defense, its collective strength – is now a distant memory.
The return of the wounded, ok, but in what condition?
It's not all their fault either, we know that.
Hit by an unprecedented scoumoune in history with half of the standard team on the floor, the Blues of yesterday will not look like those of November, when the tauliers will have healed their sores and resumed their place in the XI .
But what form will the Benzema, Kanté, Coman, Kimpembe or other Hernandez brothers be in by then?
If, for KB9, whose return to the field is imminent, this small forced break could almost be perceived as beneficial after a last season ended on the rim, for the others it will take time before regaining a more or less decent athletic level. .
Deschamps gropes again
From a tactical point of view either, things are not jojos.
If it is always better to arrive at a World Cup with at least some certainty on this side, at present, the Blues are far from the mark.
After a first successful test phase in his new 3-5-2 system, Deschamps fell back to four behind last June, before returning in recent days to his three central formula.
With the result that we know.
Asked about this point Sunday evening, DD dispatched the question.
“It's not a question of system, he repeated as he does every time the subject comes up.
When you have four corners and four times the Danes have a single guy… You can play five, ten, twelve… There is animation but also the necessary ingredients.
»
Nevertheless, by removing an additional solution in the middle of the field to add a third central defender, you must at least be severely burned on the sides for the magic to work.
However, from what we could see on Sunday evening, whether with Pavard on the right or Mendy on the left, the danger rarely came from the pistons.
Will DD do as usual and change his tune during the group stage and find the winning formula hard?
It had worked moderately at the Euro, a little more at the League of Nations, but we can at least be sorry to find ourselves so hesitant in the fall of 2022 on the match to follow: the elimination phases are generally used to fine-tune an identity/game system to stick to it.
A stuttering attacking trio
In front, except cataclysm, we know the trifecta.
Deschamps has been digging into the soup tureen for months to put his Mbappé-Griezmann-Benzema trio in the best possible position, it would be nice to see everything upset in the home stretch.
The fact remains that Benzema is back from injury, that Grizou plays with Atlético the only minutes that his contractual clause deigns to grant him and that Mbappé is not in the shape of his life, both sportingly and psychologically.
He may shout (too) high and (too) loud that he prefers his use in Blue than at PSG, where the poor would be reduced to a vulgar role of pivot (LOL), it's good from his form in club on which its Qatari World Cup depends.
However, when we see with what enthusiasm he seems to evolve with Neymar, whose head he would have been promised at the time of his extension, there is reason to ask some questions.
As for the supersubs, if the return to grace of Dembouz (spared against Denmark) at Barça tends to give us a little smile, behind it is nothingness.
Ben Yedder disappeared from the last list due to his average club performances and Nkunku is struggling to establish himself as a credible alternative in attack.
In the end, it is the indestructible Olivier Giroud who could win these duels from a distance, provided that DD is willing to let himself be convinced that no, the top scorer in activity of the Blues will not put boxing in the life of band.
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