France NT News, Formations & Results

Yeah but Payet has no backup... and if France want the flexibility to play a 4231, which is what DD wants, you need a couple of guys that can play the creative role... and that's Payet + Valbuena.  There are political implications too obviously.  Having Benzema there without Valbuena would cause a shatstorm.

The fact that Gignac was picked over Lacazette shows how little DD thinks of Lacazette...  unless he goes crazy with goals over the next 2 months or there are injuries, he's not going to make it.

By the way, Gameiro is playing better than all of them other than Benz right now... not sure why he's not there.

Dat Euro team

Don't call me James wrote:

Martial
Dembele - Griezmann - Coman
Pogba - Benzema
Whatever - Sakho - Varane - Whatever
Areola

Dat Euro team

Can't see Benzema performing in that destroyer role. He's a regista, needs another midfielder there.

We're poised to be extremely good at the Euro... likely starting XI:

lloris
Sagna-Varane-Kos-Evra
Pogba-Lass-Matuidi
Payet-Benzema-Griezmann

The bench is crazy potent on the attack and mids:
Kante
Coman
Martial
Giroud
Gignac

Imagine getting teams tired and then hitting them with Martial/Coman with fresh legs. That's going to be very very tough to contain.

Not to mention bringing in Kante to also bring impact in the mid.

Fullbacks is really the only concern and, specifically, right back. Just need Sagna/Jallet to keep it together. Lass can always play there too if it's really bad.

sportsczy wrote:We're poised to be extremely good at the Euro... likely starting XI:

lloris
Sagna-Varane-Kos-Evra
Pogba-Lass-Matuidi
Payet-Benzema-Griezmann

The bench is crazy potent on the attack and mids:
Kante
Coman
Martial
Giroud
Gignac

I wonder if Giroud and Gignac are both going . Let's say all the players you mentionned are in ( that's already 16 players ) + Cabaye/Schneiderlin + Sissoko ( smh... ) ( 2 mids )
2 backups FB , Sakho and another CB ( no Mathieu, no Zouma so Laporte ? ) ( 4 defs players )
Mandanda + 3rd GK ( 2 players )

That's already 24 players ( no Fékir, Ben arfa, Coquelin, Valbuena, one of Cabaye/Schneiderlin ... )

Valbuena is going to have a hard time making it. He may not even be the starter at Lyon since Nabil Fekir plays his position... If he does make it, then Gignac doesn't since Martial can play CF too.

Cabaye and Sissoko shouldn't both make it tbh, but they both will.

Tough luck for Benz no euro for him, hope he takes this a lesson find better friends, and forget those racist French pos who clearly using other things to fuel this witch hunt, hope that scrub valbuena can finally feel safe.

R u serious?  He approached a NT teammate during the NT get together to try and pitch his friend's blackmail scheme.  If that wasn't enough, one of his company's were charged with money laundering and being involved in a drug ring recently... and Benz was called in for questioning on this too and the case remains open.

White, black, yellow, brown, etc.... skin color doesn't matter here.  Benz has only himself to blame and thoroughly deserves his ban.

chad4401 wrote:Tough luck for Benz no euro for him, hope he takes this a lesson find better friends, and forget those racist French pos who clearly using other things to fuel this witch hunt, hope that scrub valbuena can finally feel safe.

What are you talking about ? Half of the french team is black .. Benzema did something wrong ( very unethical an mean) and the only reason he wasn't axed as soon as the story broke is because of how good he is.

@sportsczy, and @LeBéninois are spot on the money here. and i bet they're fans of the french team.(okay not to sure of LeBéninois but sportsczy is). no matter how you want to spin it, benzema isn't the victim. and its difficult to pull the race card when with that team; also the fact that there was a time, around the last euros when he wasn't in the best form for his country and he played. thing is, i bet if france don't do well, people will make it look like "oh it's because they suspended benz".....i don't know the details of the suspension, i think it might be a tad tough, but benzema is definitely NOT the victim. the whole thing could have been avoided

oh please DD and FFF could have ban benzema months ago, they didn't and obviously wanted to select him, outside sources claim ethics this and that, more like get this terrorist muslem scum out of the team, survey after survey, french president, how did valbuena case lead into money laundering? because they need more things to make him look bad, watch all this go away now that he is not selected.

I didn't say he was a victim or didn't deserve it, im saying there is a lot of politics going on here, nobody cares about valbuena, they only care about the algerian pos who wouldn't sing the nation anthem cause he felt more algerian.

Wait, Benzema is the victim of Islamophobia?

Thats the first time I'm hearing something like this.

How does Deschamps plan to win the Euros with Giroud/Gignac up front? lol.

Have a feeling France will flop because of Deschamps weird selection choices.

What are you even talking about chad?

Benzema at best did something morally wrong, at worst comitted a crime. The whole thing with Valbuena would have gotten most players instantly banned. The only reason there is a debate is because of his level of play.

Why is there talk of terrorism and Benzema? Also, the valbuena case didn't lead into money laundering, thats a whole new thing. Benzema has also been caught with an underage prostitute. He is not in prison because they couldn't prove that he knew that she was underage. The FFF has had tons of material to ban him. You realize that Zidane, one of their most celebrated players ever, is also Algerian? Half the team is black and most are of mixed heritage.

I am not sure why you are responding to Chad's ignorant posts, lumping in terrorism and Benzema's parents country into one argument as if it's the underlying issue in this situation.

It's actually very poor because he is assuming that French cant differentiate between the terrorism acts they have been victim of, and the fact that Benzema's parent are from Algeria. It's ignorant to a level i cant even comprehend.

Anyway, the real issue here and the one thing that has been driving french football for the past 6 years, is what happened in South Africa with players refusing to get off the bus. It was a traumatic event that they are still recovering from. It's the reason why they have been trying to put on emphasis on behavior more so that the performance.

Nasri was banned out of the national team for his behavior in the group. When Griezmann acted an idiot with the u21 team he was banned as well as an example. Payet was in purgatory until recently he made up with Deschamps.

Benzema is involved in a crime. A CRIME. racketeering is a crime. He was prominently involved as a intermediary linking Valbuena to the actual criminals, via his friend. Benzema has a meeting with the criminal in Madrid with his best friend to discuss what to do. It happened, he hasnt denied that even in front of the judge. The police has leaked so much of the story french medias have almost everything.

He got banned out of his NT for his own choices and behavior, because the FFF despite how much they want to pick Benzema, cant ignore the fact that he has created the context we are currently in, and from an image standpoint, it can be a guy representing their national team in front of millions of kids.

You need better sporstman, better role models. Benzema has proven to be none of that

urbaNRoots wrote:How does Deschamps plan to win the Euros with Giroud/Gignac up front? lol.

Have a feeling France will flop because of Deschamps weird selection choices.

Upfront there are also Payet, Griezman , Martial and Coman. Anyawya sthe debate is not there. Deschamps wanted to select Benzema , even the president who suspended him wanted him to be in the team but you can't just ignore what he has done. After the WC 2010 where the players put shame on their NT, after Benzema being involved in that scandal with Zahia etc.. They had to take actions. People seem to belittling what he has done, helping a friend to blackmail your teammate....

It biggest factor for his ban was the he approached Valbuena directly about the blackmail DURING an international get together at the NT camp... i mean how dumb can you get.  If he had done it on his own time, maybe they could have justified as being a personal issue between two men.  But to do it during international break at the players' dormitory?  That made it a NT issue without question.

On the positive side, Deschamps can omit to select Valbuena without PR repercussions now... and rumor has it that Valbuena is on the outside looking in.  Good.  His play has been horrid this season.

And i will add that Giroud and Gignac are actually better fits than Benz for Girezmann, Payet, Coman and Martial.  Those guys are most effective when they have a physical targetman they can cross too and who puts physical pressure on the CBs.  To have another false 9 doesn't really work all that well.

In the WC, France was great with Benzema when they were able to counter attack.  When the defenses were set, they had problems because they had no box presence.  

I don't mind it.  If you really need technique in the middle, you can always but either Martial or Griezmann there anyhow.  Griezmann has more goals than Benz this season while getting far worse looks.

the decision was so dumb, the FFF president is saying griezmann>benzema, because he scored 2 goal against barca, that how footy works now?

if you not gonna select the guy say so and be done with it, but to put giroud and gignac in the same sentence, then put him under griezmann, after all the positive things they were saying leading up to this point, is disgusting, disgraceful and proves my point, its more about shitting on benzema than getting justice for valbuena.

hope the french not all of them of course, are pleased with themselves for dragging a player through the mud for months just shit on him in the end, again if your do all of this just ban the guy anyways, then do it from the get go.

im not just saying this because im a fan of his, because what he did was stupid, but this whole situation could've been settled much better.

R u serious.  They tried like hell to bring him back.  You know what changed it?  The FFF was accepted as a "civil party" to the case 3 weeks ago and got access to all the evidence that the justice system had.  After that, they stopped defending him...  you knew something bad was in there because they were bending over backwards to defend him publicly before that.

We're talking a blackmailing ring that had gone after Djibril Cisse and Valbuena among others... and then that got extended to drug trafficking.  MAJOR drug trafficking.  And you know who owned the corporation that was laundering the drug money?  It's owned 100% by Benzema.  So far, they haven't been able to trace the benefits from the scams to Benzema because the money was diverted away from that company... luckily for him.  So he's only being accused of being accessory to blackmail and a witness to the drug ring.  If they are able to trace any of the cash to him, he's in jail for 20 years.

That's how serious it is.

As far as Griezmann... he's scored more goals than Benz this season with far less help.  29 in all competitions.  All this while being the main scoring threat for Atleti so teams are geared to stop him.  The only other decent offensive threat Atleti has is Ferreira Carrasco... and he's nowhere near a top shelf player at this point. After that? It's Torres He's every bit as good as Benzema although not a pure CF.

Gameiro should be considered too... problem with him is that he has no air presence, which is really what they want. There's also Lacazette.

It all comes down to whether they will consider Griezmann and Martial as backup strikers if needed or if they go for 3 distinct strikers.

Gameiro has not been called up since 3-4 years. The Ligue 1 best player in 2015 aka Lacazette wasn't called last season so I doubt he will. That being said, even tho they seem to be good lads, I honestly don't see the point of having Gignac AND Giroud. I'd keep one of them and bring Ben Arfa in.

to make my point even more obvious these guys also said, that there is great harmony in the team and the last friendlies were very good so they decided to leave him out.

so they either lead him on just in case, the NT wasn't going well they would let him rejoin as an insurance policy, which still looked bad.

or they never had any intentions of letting him rejoin and delayed banning him, so they could disgrace him some more.

or they were pressured into not picking him, which again comes to the point of why they were leading him on? since whoever was pressuring them was doing so since the beginning.

in a decision this big they always know, what the answer was going to be, and instead of swiftly banning this guy, let him focus on his cases, you stall him out by acting like as the court ban was lifted, he could rejoin and then at the last minute you reject him and act like he is some lesser player, i don't care who it is that messed up.

I have no idea where you come up with this stuff dude... it's the twilight zone.

they had no choice. you can't say you want to swiftly ban him if you don't know or don't have all the facts. banning him swiftly does not bode well for other members of the team; it gives the impression that they do not have players' backs. deschamps has always liked benzema, i'm not a follower of french football, but i remember when papin criticized benzema, deschamps was very supportive of benzema.

when the tabloids where counting how many games without a goal he had for france, deschamps and the federation still supported him. a number of fans didn't want him at that point, but deschamps and people in the establishment were adamant on keeping him

its a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't...if you take him, it becomes "you play favorites, regardless of the off the field issue", you ban him immediately then its "you didn't even give a chance to hear court info and verdicts", you suspend him (which they've done), if france don't win (which even with him they may or may not), he becomes a martyr and "france lost cos benzema didn't play"

they have to talk up team harmony to settle the nerves of their own players and play down the situation (dropping benzema) as much as possible. had nothing to do with race creed, culture, hating the player, (i bet the fff and deschamps have more on their minds than to start hating on benzema or who's better between him and higuain) nor the anthem...i've heard zidane never sang it and they always loved him. the fff cannot be blamed for the situation at hand at all. as i said before it could have been avoided.