|
As World Cup Champions, France is a heavy favourite to win this year. The squad: Keepers: Hugo Lloris (Tottenham) Steve Mandanda (Marseille) Mike Maignan (Lille) No surprises here - Lloris is the captain and Mandanda's been his #2 for pretty much every tournament for the last ten years except for World Cup 2014, when he was forced out by injury. Mike Maignan was the #1 for Ligue 1's surprise champions this season, Lille, and is on his way to replace Donnarumma at AC Milan. Hopefully he at least gets a start, he's very good and likely to be France's next #1 in a few years when Lloris and Mandanda are too old. Defenders: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern) Presnel Kimpembe (PSG) Raphael Varane (Real Madrid) Clement Lenglet (Barcelona) Kurt Zouma (Chelsea) Lucas Digne (Everton) Lucas Hernandez (Bayern) The main story for France's defenders was probably Aymeric Laporte going to the Spanish team, which seemed to be a surprise. They probably could have called up Bayern's third French defender, Dayot Upamecano, in addition to who's here. The big chance from 2018 is that they have called up Barcelona's other French centre-back, Clement Lenglet, instead of Samuel Umtiti who seems to have sold out the future of his career to be able to be World Cup champion. Hernandez and Pavard are back, presumably to resume their full-back roles from 2018. Midfielders: Paul Pogba (Manchester United) Thomas Lemar (Atletico Madrid) Corentin Tolisso (Bayern Munich) N'Golo Kante (Chelsea) Adrien Rabiot (Juventus) Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham) Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich) I think Bayern has more French starters than Paris Saint-Germain. This midfield is very similar to the one in 2018 - no Matuidi this year, and Rabiot (or his mom) appears to be satisfied his talent will be properly used, as he's been called up which is a bit of a surprise. The biggest surprise, however, is... Forwards: Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona) Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) Kylian Mbappe (PSG) Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona) Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) Wissam Ben Yedder (Monaco) Marcus Thuram (Gladbach) Karim Benzema is back. After five years in exile following some kind of sextape blackmail stunt with Mathieu Valbuena, Deschamps has called back Benzema after he's been having some very good seasons for Madrid without Ronaldo. Giroud has returned because despite not playing a whole lot at Chelsea, he always performs for Les Bleus, Wissam Ben Yedder has been scoring a lot of goals for Monaco, tying with Mbappe fairly recently, and Marcus Thuram so far is mostly known for his name as his dad is France's all-time caps leader, Lilian Thuram. It's unclear what kind of formation the French team will use; in 2018 they used some kind of lopsided 4-4-2 which won't make sense without Matuidi, and in the friendlies leading up to the tournament they experimented with a 4-4-2 diamond, which could work and is an interesting throwback to the 1984 Euro team. One thing's for sure: when France is a heavy favourite, the most likely outcome seems to be that they'll lose all their group stage games, which is what I expect here, especially since there's already trouble brewing with Giroud and Mbappe.
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2021 00:16
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:42 |
|
|
Lucas Digne also plays as full-back, and some of the other centre-backs can fill in as required I think but I can't think off the top of my head who else would do it. I think Kurt Zouma can play as right back sometimes, but Hernandez/Pavard are likely expected to start. France has ridiculous depth at every position except full-back, basically. Tokyo Sexwale fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jun 12, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2021 03:21
|
|
|
the sex ghost posted:drat I had Netherlands down as my favourites to have a massive internal bust up They can both be OP
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2021 00:35
|
|
|
I was shocked and unnerved to hear that Barcelona's famous iron man, Ousmane Dembele, picked up an injury and will be out for 3 weeks and therefore for the rest of the tournament. It seemed so far-fetched to consider that Dembele might get hurt.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2021 03:01
|
|
|
Shrapnig posted:I think you'll find he's actually out for three months. now there's the Dembele we all remember. At least he'll get plenty of FIFA time.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2021 18:10
|
|
|
McFlurry Fan #1 posted:French now much better than the Dutch at tournament meltdowns my friend can I interest you in World Cup 2002 and 2010? The French have always had top-notch tournament meltdowns
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2021 14:59
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:42 |
|
|
Wengy posted:Can someone explain why Lenglet started/starts over Zouma? Deschamps is the man with the plan
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2021 20:26
|
|