Didier Deschamps would like to be a magician these days, or maybe better: a miracle healer.

One important pillar after another has broken away from the coach of the defending champions France over the past few weeks.

First, the midfield authorities Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kanté fell out, the world champion Presnel Kimpembe is also missing the French.

RB Leipzig's Christopher Nkunku, perhaps the best player in the Bundesliga at the moment, was injured during tournament preparation and Karim Benzema left on Sunday.

"Do you think I can snap my fingers and then a leader will appear?" the French coach replied before the defending champion's first World Cup game against Australia, somewhat annoyed when asked how that would show up in the structure of the collective .

But perhaps the personal problems also have a positive effect on the French attempt to be the first reigning world champion since 2006 to survive the preliminary round at a World Cup.

Because the problem of this team traditionally does not lie in a lack of quality.

Rather, the positive energy was often missing.

For many years, the Équipe Tricolore have been accompanied by reports and rumors about disputes, conflicts, affairs, even legal disputes.

At the EM 2021, the team failed not least because of their own arrogance, with which many world champions stood in their own way, who had actually already passed their peak performance.

In decisive moments, they no longer defended with the necessary commitment.

Therefore, Deschamps emphasized on Monday: "If we have the ball, there is no problem, it is difficult when we play against the ball."

Many new faces for Didier Deschamps

Now, younger players moving up should contribute to the emergence of a more harmoniously cooperating group.

Randal Kolo Muani, 23, was called up from the Bundesliga after Nkunku had to leave.

But Aurélien Tchouaméni, 22, and Eduardo Camavinga, 20, who play for Real Madrid, as well as Liverpool's Ibrahima Konaté, 23, are also expected to help infuse the team with new hunger and dispose of the atmospheric legacy.

"We have to stick together, we don't look outside, that's the main thing," said midfielder Adrien Rabiot.

He could now play a central role, as he is suddenly one of the most experienced players in the squad at the age of 27.

So, unlike the defending champions Spain 2014 and Germany 2018, the French cannot try to repeat their success by trying to do as much as they did four years ago.

There are too many new faces for that.

That makes this team exciting, which the former national coach Raymond Domenech recently accused of having become world champions in 2018, but playing "boringly".

In the current tournament that could change with the mature but still only 23-year-old Kylian Mbappé and all the other boys.

"I believe in our team and that we can develop a positive dynamic," said captain Hugo Lloris before the first World Cup game against Australia (8 p.m. CET in the FAZ live ticker for the World Cup, on ZDF and on MagnetaTV).

To do this, however, they must put the past months of crisis behind them.

France managed to avoid relegation from the Nations League, but the disappointing performance at the European Championship a year and a half ago has not had any healing effect so far.

They have won only one of their six international matches, 2-0 against weak Austrians, who are not even in Qatar.

That's why the association is closely monitoring whether Deschamps succeeds in creating something new in his tenth year as national coach.

“The goal remains the same: the semifinals.

If we don't achieve it, we'll see what happens," said association president Noël Le Graët of the newspaper "L'Équipe" when asked about the future of the coach.

Until then, he is suspected – like Joachim Löw was with the Germans – of standing in the way of a fresh start.