France NT News, Formations & Results

Another interesting part of the press conference... DD clearly stated that Evra and Sagna are likely going to be too old and lose performance by the time the WC comes around in 2 years. So he's going to give Digne, Kurzawa, Sidibe and Corchia a chance to develop.

Sounds like a sensible idea IMO.

Regarding Benzema:

"He isn't healthy and, even if he was, I wouldn't have taken him.  It's not the time for him to return."

"(regarding racist accusations by Cantona and Benzema) I will never forget what they said about me.  It was unacceptable."

I put the chances of Benzema returning to France NT at 0.00000001%.  Unless there's a goalscoring issue and he has absolutely no choice, DD will not call on him. Benzema is black listed.  His days on the national team are over.

Benzema should have kept his mouth shut. Plain and simple.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Dembele-gameiro-et-kondogbia-appeles-chez-les-bleus/722124

Ousmane Dembele, Gamiero and Kondogbia called up to replace Cabaye, Lacazette and Fekir.

Excited to see Dembele get his chance this early.

Why is Varane captaining France?

Because Lloris is hurt and Varane is the captain without Lloris.  

Friendlies a few days before WC qualifying game are useless.  The guys are looking to avoid injury and work up a sweat

Absolutely nothing to see in this first half.  Everyone was at half speed and the contact you saw was mostly by accident.  Never going to see that much space on defense or such a slow pace in official games.

France and Italy never take friendlies seriously to begin with. I always wonder why i bother to watch lol.

Giroud is so underrated ffs. Great goal. Not even fit.

Kurzawa has to be no 1 LB from now on.

Wenger uses Giroud as if he's technical. Try to tiki taka goals when he's the CF . France use him the way he can be effective... very directly.

Wenger will never play direct football though. Hasn't in years. Henry used to force it but that's because he went to fetch the ball at the mid-pitch circle if Arsenal were being too slow.

France won 3-1 but a complete waste of time. I brush my teeth with more intensity than that.

Kurzawa is more clinical than half the strikers

Kurzawa was a striker until he was 17 I think.... that's why. He's very new at fullback. You can tell by his defending

747 was parked on us. Missed Payet and when he came on around 55th min, we created 7-8 clearcut chances. The strikers just didn't have the scoring touch.

Typical first qualification game for us where we either lose or draw. Once the strikers get sharp, no problem winning this group imo.

Need to replace Giroud. You just can't win tournaments with this guy. He's decent enough... but you need a player that is more skilled there. He's the one player that can't play with the ball at his feet for France.

Missed 2 glorious chances tonight.

He is in pre-season mode tbf. France should have started with Martial upfront or someone else.

Everyone is... Pogba has played 2 games, Griezmann 2, Payet none, Giroud none, Sissoko none, Matuidi 1, etc.

Just lacked sharpness. It will come. Completely dominated the game, as expected.

If Deschamps is smart, he keeps the club tandem of Grizzy-Gameiro together on NT. They're really starting to click at Atleti. There's absolutely no reason to start Giroud ahead of Gameiro is Gameiro is killing it with Grizzy at the club level.

Capoue and Rabiot also deserve shouts over scrubs like Cabaye and Schneiderlin.

Would you switch to a 4-4-2, as well?


Or would Griezmann go to the RW?

More like a 4132

Lloris
Sidibe-Varane-Koscielny-Kurzawa
Kante
Pogba-Matuidi-Payet
Griezmann-Gameiro

I don't think Kurzawa holds on to his spot however.  I can easily see Sidibe being moved left (as he has with Monaco right now) and Sagna returning as the RB.  So...

Sagna-Varane-Koscielny-Sidibe

Fair enough.

People should start keeping track of Malang Sarr, the 17 year old left back at Nice... he's fantastic. First pro season.

Aymeric Laporte got selected and he accepted the invitation.... which is great for France and not so much for Spain. Pretty clear that Pique and Ramos are going to start for the next 2-3 years regardless of performance because of politics. No such issues with France NT.

However, I don't think Laporte can beat out Umiti, Varane and Koscielny. The battle is for the 4th CB spot really.

pretty excited about the CB foursome of Koscielny, Varane, Laporte and Kimpembe. Only one missing is Umtiti.

Griezmann-Gameiro looked incredibly dynamic... looked like twin brothers. The best part is that both play incredible defense too since they play for Atleti. It was an absolute nightmare for Bulgaria's back 4 to try and move the ball once they got it back.

La liste des 23 de l'équipe de France

Gardiens
Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)
Benoît Costil (Rennes)
Alphonse Aréola (PSG)

Défenseurs
Djibril Sidibé (Monaco)
Bacary Sagna (Manchester City)

Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)
Presnel Kimpembe (PSG)
Adil Rami (FC Séville)
Samuel Umtiti (FC Barcelone)

Layvin Kurzawa (PSG)
Benjamin Mendy (Monaco)

Milieux de terrain
N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea)
Blaise Matuidi (PSG)
Paul Pogba (Manchester United)
Adrien Rabiot (PSG)
Dimitri Payet (Marseille)
Corentin Tolisso (Lyon)

Attaquants
Ousmane Dembélé (Borussia Dortmund)
Kévin Gameiro (Atlético Madrid)
Olivier Giroud (Arsenal)
Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid)
Thomas Lemar (Monaco)
Florian Thauvin (Marseille)
Kylian Mbappé (Monaco).

Still no Lacazette

I have a few problems with this:

Lacazette not being there obviously
If you're saying that you need a "Giroud" profile, Anthony Modeste has been far better this season
Bakayoko and Nzonzi are better than Tolisso at this point although I like him too

Giroud needs to be dropped. Rami in there makes my eyes hurt... but I guess Varane is injured and DD wanted a player that had a certain level of experience.