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This is the official TRP thread for the 2018 French National Team, sponsored by Qatar Airways. France is conisdered one of the front runners due to their overwhelming wealth of attacking players, which is expected to make up for their suspect goalkeeping, midfield and defence. In all likelihood, their performance will mirror that of Belgium: play some decent games in the group stages until they poo poo the bed in the quarters and underwhelm to an early exit. First off, apologies for the length; I have far, far too much to say about Les Bleus and I have tried to keep it short. History: France's international football history is a story of major ups and downs: winning the 1984 Euro, then failing to qualify for Euro 1988; winning the 1998 World Cup, then exiting the 2002 World Cup's group stage; making a fantastic showing at World Cup 2006, followed by a player revolt and strike at the 2010 World Cup. But they jettisoned Raymond Domenech, the coach who picks players with astrology, proposed to a girlfriend at a press conference to explain another French humiliation, and who neglected to tell the team captain, Patrick Vieira, that he was not selected for WC 2010, so that he had to find out on the news. After Domenech, they hired one national team legend, Laurent Blanc, who underachieved at Euro 2012. They replaced him with Didier Deschamps, another national team legend, who will likely be jettisoned if France underachieves again. Given historical trends, it seems probable they will pick up another big name French manager with a stunning run of recent success... The 2018 Team - Goalkeepers:    Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Alphonse Areola (PSG) Lloris is the unquestioned starter, due to being the best of the three, and the team's captain. He unfortunately has the propensity for some perplexing goalkeeping decisions, like what cost the team Euro 2016, but is still the best option. Mandanda has performed superbly for Marseille over the years, but tends to poo poo the bed in international games and, as we've seen, continental finals. They might let Areola start in the group stage, but it seems unlikely. He played pretty well for PSG this year, becoming a rare commodity: a PSG youth product who actually starts for the first team. The Team - Defenders:          Layvin Kurzawa (PSG), Presnel Kimpembe (PSG), Benjamin Mendy (Manchester City), Samuel Umtiti (Barcelona), Raphael Varane (Real Madrid), Lucas Hernandez (Atletico Madrid), Benjamin Pavard (Stuttgart), Adil Rami (Marseille), Djibril Sidibe (Monaco) A big change from Euro 2016, there are two notable omissions here: Laurent Koscielny is unable to play because of injury, and Mathieu Debuchy was also not picked possibly due to age, despite resurrecting his career at AS Saint-Etienne in 2018. Many of these defenders are only starting to assert themselves on the international stage, with Kurzawa, Kimpembe, Mendy, Hernandez, Pavard and Sidibe playing in their first international tournament, a bit of a departure for Deschamps as he is not typically known for picking a team full of debutants. Their starting fullbacks in 2016 were Patrice Evra and Bacary Sagna. The defence mirrors the French team as a whole: a collection of extremely talented individuals, but it remains to be seen how well they play collectively. The Team - Midfielders:      Thomas Lemar (Monaco), Blaise Matuidi (Juventus), Corentin Tolisso (Bayern Munich), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), N'Golo Kante (Chelsea) No real surprises here, aside from Thomas Lemar, who had a very poor season compared to his usual standard, as he allowed his head to be turned by interest from Arsenal and Liverpool and never got over his disappointment at staying at Monaco. While Pogba had an inconsistent season as well, an exclusion from the French team at the World Cup is impossible. It remains to be seen how well he'll perform, since he is often not good outside of his preferred position and role. Kante, I heard, was good, but unfortunately hurt often which did not help Chelsea's season. I don't watch the Bundesliga, so I don't know how well Tolisso did this year, and the same with Matuidi and Juventus. The big controversy, because there's always a controversy with Les Bleus over major tournaments, was a midfield nuisance named Adrien Rabiot, who was picked for the provisional 30-man squad yet declined to participate due to an alleged beef about how he's been used as a player this year. He's caused trouble before over his use at PSG, likely not helped due to his agent being his mother. So he's not been called up to the final squad, which is probably for the best. The Team - Forwards:       Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona), Florian Thauvin (Marseille), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Kylian Mbappe (PSG), Nabil Fekir (Lyon), Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) No real surprises here. Dimitri Payet was a lock for inclusion due to his 2018 form, but an injury at the Europa League final screwed his chances. Thauvin has been a monster for Marseille the past two seasons, scoring 37 goals in Ligue 1 during that time, but due to personality issues was not called up to the senior team until 2017. Another debutant-heavy selection, with this being the first major tournament for Dembele, Thauvin, Mbappe, and Fekir. Fekir was expected to be called up for Euro 2016, but an ACL injury took a long time to recover from. Giroud has been selected because, ever since Benzema has been barred from the team due to a sex-tape mixup with Mathieu Valbuena, Giroud has been France's best striker by some distance.  The Manager - Didier Deschamps: While Platini and Zidane are rightly seen as France's best players, which is hard to argue, due should be given to Didier Deschamps. He's won league titles and Champions League trophies as a player, took Monaco to a Champions League final, won a title managing Marseille, and was team captain of France's 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euro teams. By and large, he's been the best manager the French team has had since Jacques Santini in the early 2000s, even if he makes the occasional bewildering tactical mistake and some perplexing selection choices, like Evra/Sagna in Euro 2016 and using Pogba in a deep role during the Euro 2016 final. The matches:  France has been drawn in Group C with Australia, Denmark, and Peru. This is a group that's winnable for Les Bleus, but given how many times they've unexpectedly poo poo the bed in tournaments they were favoured to do well in, it could just as easily be an embarrassing Group Stage exit as it could a semifinals/finals appearance. At present, here are their scheduled matches: France-Australia: June 16th at 6:00am Eastern Standard Time France-Peru: June 21st at 11:00am Eastern Standard Time France-Denmark: June 26th at 10:00am Eastern Standard Time So there, sorry for the length. Feel free to discuss how likely they are to bottle it, whether or not Zidane is waiting for the outcome of the World Cup to possibly take over from Deschamps, if you miss the entertainment of the Domenech era, the morally upstanding and definitely not compromised Michel Platini, where all the good French players will go now that they're not always permanently linked to Arsenal, just about anything, really.
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Jun 1, 2018 19:35
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 05:17 |
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Deschamps is loyal to His Guys. Evra had no business in international football in 2016, and yet... It might be the comparative lack of quality, but Rami did actually have a pretty good season with Marseille. I was as surprised as you would be. It could also be that Marseille's center-back situation is just that bad, too.
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Jun 1, 2018 20:30
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melodramatic bullshit is the one constant that unites all eras of French football. While we're reminiscing about Deschamps being a mentalist, let's not forget about Samir Nasri in 2014. Or more specifically, his self-destructive taste in women, lol. This is what makes the French team great.
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Jun 2, 2018 01:18
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Gigi Galli posted:So really this thread should be sponsored by Drip Doctors is what you're saying. They really missed a golden opportunity by not having a customer testimonial from Samir on their website.
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Jun 2, 2018 02:20
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Basically. Deschamps is a mentalist who freaks out about squad disunity, so he's turfed Benzema, Ben Arfa, Nasri, Valbuena, and been very reluctant to call up Payet or Thauvin.
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Jun 3, 2018 01:43
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julian assflange posted:No that was Raymond Domenech at the time of his dismissal domenech was France's longest-serving manager, lmao
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Jun 3, 2018 21:47
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Reprisal posted:Just read that Pavard plays as center-back for his club. I know I've made fun of Deschamps's roster selections but picking Pavard was a stroke of genius, because I was worried about Sidibe being the main right-back for the team.
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Jul 7, 2018 18:28
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Yeah, going in I had concerns about their defense but it's actually their least worrying part of the team
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Jul 10, 2018 21:23
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Gigi Galli posted:You lost probably for the best - imagine a world where Raymond Domenech wins a World Cup
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Jul 12, 2018 17:34
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 05:17 |
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Impressive efficiency, imo
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Jul 16, 2018 14:11
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