World Cup 2018 General Discussion

Pretty sure Matuidi will start over him.

These are the backups

Suppléants :
- W. Ben Yedder
- K. Coman
- B. Costil
- M. Debuchy
- L. Digne
- A. Lacazette
- A. Martial
- A. Rabiot
- M. Sakho
- M. Sissoko
- K. Zouma

— Equipe de France (@equipedefrance) May 17, 2018

Matuidi is gash. France wont win anything with him starting. He's been pretty awful for Juventus since coming back from injury.

S wrote:Its good that they picked N'Zonzi but will he start for them ?

N'Zonzi
Kante---Pogba

Should be their starting midfield IMO

No. Matuidi starts in a 433.

Since we only have 5 CMs, I think we will see a lot of 4231 or 442 setups against lesser teams where Thomas Lemar or Thauvin play as a AM.

We're not a one tactical formation team.

S wrote:Matuidi is gash. France wont win anything with him starting. He's been pretty awful for Juventus since coming back from injury.

If not Matuidi, then Tolisso.

But we'll see how Matuidi looks in the friendlies before the WC. That will drive the decision. I've seen a lot of times when older players basically tank their club season to make sure they're available for their last world cup... especially if they feel ostracized for whatever reason by their manager. Not saying that's Matuidi's case... but it's not abnormal.

I would have Laporte over Rami, Rabiot over N'Zonzi and Martial over Thauvin. The rest players I'd pick the same as Deschamps. Rabiot not in WC squad is insane decision by Deschamps.

sportsczy wrote:

S wrote:Matuidi is gash. France wont win anything with him starting. He's been pretty awful for Juventus since coming back from injury.

If not Matuidi, then Tolisso.

But we'll see how Matuidi looks in the friendlies before the WC.  That will drive the decision.  I've seen a lot of times when older players basically tank their club season to make sure they're available for their last world cup...  especially if they feel ostracized for whatever reason by their manager.  Not saying that's Matuidi's case...  but it's not abnormal.

Could be. Dont know much about Matuidi's performance level for his NT. Wasnt particularly impressed with him in the Euros either. But if club form is anything to by, i think N'Zonzi perhaps warrants a place over him in the starting eleven. Always felt a holding midfielder/distributor was one of France's weakness in midfield and someone like N'Zonzi could help combat that weakness. France have plenty of B2B's but very few  midfield anchors.

M99 wrote:Who is Pavard?

Surprised to see Rami still there. And no Laporte too.

Stuttgart RB/CB/DM. Great young player who will go places. Dortmund should buy him IMO, would solve lots of their problems.

Happy for N'Zonzi. I think a chance of France has been long overdue for him.

Kante is the anchor S... best anchor there is in the world actually.  N'Zonzi is backing him up.

But again, it's a moving target in terms of tactics with DD.  The pre-WC friendlies are going to be really interesting for this reason.

These are the players set in stone imo:

Lloris
Sidibe - Varane - Umtiti - Mendy
Kante - Pogba - (open)
Mbappe - Griezmann - Giroud

Really, it comes down to whether DD wants a 3rd mid or AM in that one open spot. It will depend on the opponent. If Pogba starts flopping, he will get benched quickly btw.

No Ruben Neves

Andre Gomes also kicked out

Ronaldo not picking championship players

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Ronaldo not picking championship players

Portugal are a joke team that got lucky they could fluke their way to a Euro win, anyway.
They basically didn't win one single game, their luck was the top team by far, Germany, had an unfortunate day vs France.
Germany would of course have beaten Portugal comfortably in a final, as we always do.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Portugal are a joke team that got lucky they could fluke their way to a Euro win, anyway.
They basically didn't win one single game, their luck was the top team by far, Germany, had an unfortunate day vs France.
Germany would of course have beaten Portugal comfortably in a final, as we always do.

i think england would have beat them as well if we didnt lose to iceland.

France had owned Portugal before that final Hans... We hadn't lost to them since the 70s and had met them a ton in elimination rounds.

That semi between France and Germany was less than 72 hours before the final. Everyone on France was playing as if they had led in their boots... any other circumstance and we would have beat them.

Eder would have never taken that shot if Ronaldo was on the field, He would have waited for it to be passed wide for a cross tbh

RealGunner wrote:

No Ruben Neves

Andre Gomes also kicked out

Really surprised Cancelo not called up for WC .
I can assure he was great this year in Inter
But he played badly last matches with Portugal (even a red card ) so I suppose it was because of it
But anyway surprising imo

I love how sports says with Deschamps it's a moving target in terms of tactics, Deschamps is one of the worst coaches out there but he has a stacked team so he will go far.

But based on squad selection and what he said he will most likely play a 442 and switch to 433 in bigger games.

Lloris
Sidibe Varane Umtiti Mendy
Thauvin/Dembele kante Pogba Lemar
Grizzly Mbappe

As shit as Deschamps is France are almost as overrated as Belgium talent wise tbh.

People look at each individual and lose their shit instead of thinking how they fit together.

I look at the midfield and attack trios proposed and cringe, none of them work at optimal levels.

I would argue that they fit together well. Their biggest problem is that their supposed two best players, Pogba and Griezmann are not compatible.

Griezmann is best in a 442 like with Atletico where he has freedom. But in that scheme Pogba would play in the 2 man midfield and he is pretty bad at it.

And if you wanna play 433 to best accomodate Pogba, you have to play Griezmann wide and he is complete shit as a winger.

how you solve this? 352 like Juve did. Anyway it will be hard for both to excel at the same time in the best competition. Unless Pogba makes sacrifices he has been unwilling to make at United so far

That would mean they don't fit very well tbh.

Also Matuidi-Kante-Pogba definitely are not maximising the potential of the unit tbh, same goes for Griezmann-Giroud-Mbappe.

As much as individual talent they seem to have, none of them maximise that talent to take advantage of it on a team level.

I'm yet to see a team proposed in this thread which maximises the talent and doesn't significantly restrict somewhere.

They can fit well together no problem, their still too young tho.
They'll be likely the best team by far in 2-4-6 years

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:That would mean they don't fit very well tbh.

Also Matuidi-Kante-Pogba definitely are not maximising the potential of the unit tbh, same goes for Griezmann-Giroud-Mbappe.

As much as individual talent they seem to have, none of them maximise that talent to take advantage of it on a team level.

I'm yet to see a team proposed in this thread which maximises the talent and doesn't significantly restrict somewhere.

yeah i guess the problem is really those two, one has to sacrifice for the other to shine.

the solution is 352 like i said, or a 4312, there are formations that can put both in their best roles but my main man Deschamps is a prime scrub. He will play counter attacking football and ride the natural talent of his players until they lose in quarters or semis

------N'zonzi----
--Kante--Pogba--
-------Fekir------
Griezmann-Mbappe

uff worthy or no?

When I see France, Germany, Spain and Brazil and after  I think to Italy, I think Italy to WC would be like if Sampdoria plays next Champions League.
And in fact both stay at home.

farfan wrote:------N'zonzi----
--Kante--Pogba--
-------Fekir------
Griezmann-Mbappe

uff worthy or no?

Giroud for Griezmann and yes