2024-07-12 00:45:25
Hope for Mbappe and… that’s it?!
As reported by İdman.biz with reference to “Championship”, the Spanish national team is celebrating reaching the final and is drowning in well-deserved praise. They praise Lamin Yamal, who has been proving since his youth that age is just a number. They pay tribute to the brilliant center of the field with Rodri, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo, who is a great substitute for Pedri. They applaud Jesus Navas and Nacho, who came to the rescue in the absence of Dani Carvajal and Robin Le Normand.
After the semi-final, I only want to talk about Spain. But in general, they did have an opponent. The French team, unlike the Spanish, was considered one of the front-row favorites before the start of the Euro. An unlimited roster, a coach who has been in his place for a long time, plus experience of big matches and big victories. France, of course, had the starter pack of an obvious favorite.
EURO 2024 – Final Round . 1/2 finals
Tuesday, July 09, 2024. 23:00
Spain – France – 2:1
0:1 Kolo Muana – 9′ 1:1 Yamal – 21′ 2:1 Olmo – 25′
But now that France have been knocked out and have scored just one open goal in six games (the rest are own goals plus Kylian Mbappe’s penalty against Poland), it’s important to figure out what didn’t work in this pack. The squad remains unlimited. Of course, Mbappe’s injury played a role, but we’ll get to that a bit later. Experience hasn’t gone anywhere, and it doesn’t fade away when almost all the same people are still there.
And what about the coach? Is Didier Deschamps really in his place? There were doubts about this before the tournament, but they were shattered by the results of the French: two World Cup finals, one of which was a victory, the Euro 2016 final, victory in the League of Nations. Sounds good!
However, now the question of Deschamps’ future is becoming extremely acute. He did not give a bright game and did not justify his pragmatism (which is invariably associated with boredom) with the result. What did he lack? You can refer to Mbappe’s injury. And Deschamps referred to it: he openly said that Kylian is not the same as people are used to seeing him. Mbappe, they say, is not to blame for this. But we have what we have: he is not in his prime now.
Okay, accepted. When your best player is out of form, it can’t help but affect the team’s performance. It would be strange if the French team didn’t use Mbappe’s talents and, accordingly, didn’t depend on him. Another thing is that Deschamps didn’t keep this dependence within adequate limits.
With such a huge resource, he could have made the team more diverse. He could have made sure that, in addition to the option of a healthy, cheerful and happy Mbappe, who is ready to tear anyone apart, there were other options. However, they simply were not found. It turned out that, apart from the hope for Mbappe, France offered nothing else.
Although Deschamps was looking. He tried to find a role for Marcus Thuram, tried to play Bradley Barcol. In the match with Spain, he moved Mbappe to the flank, and released the impressive Randal Kolo Muani into the center. He scored, and in general it was clear that the center of the Spanish defense was having a hard time against such a giant. It is even stranger that in the second half, when France needed to recoup, Deschamps took off Kolo Muani first – already in the 62nd minute.
In previous years, the Mbappe-Giroud duo worked well in the French national team’s attack. At this Euro, Giroud is simply not there. Of course, he came onto the field, but he had exactly as many useful actions as Deschamps had new ideas – zero.
The French coach, with Thuram, Barcol, Kolo Muani, Ousmane Dembele, Kingsley Coman and Antoine Griezmann at his disposal, has not come up with anything new in attack. The reliance on individual talent has not paid off. Partly because of Mbappe’s injury and poor form. And partly because relying solely on individual talent without some tactical spice is a very dangerous thing. Talents will not play well – so what? It seems that Deschamps has not found a solution to this problem.
In addition, France lacked reliability in defense. Yes, they conceded only three goals in the entire tournament, two of which were in the semi-final against Spain. But this does not change the fact that in every match there were chances at the French goal. Sometimes there were fewer, sometimes more. Sometimes there were a lot of them, as in the match against the Netherlands. The fact is that France did not have any cement at the back.
The central defender pairing of William Saliba and Deotshankul Upamecano was questionable in every match. There were also questions about Jules Kounde on the right, who often allowed himself to be beaten. But neither of them was ever rotated.
All three played the Euros in full, every match – from whistle to whistle. And Ibrahima Konate and Benjamin Pavard were on the bench. It is not a fact that with them it would have been guaranteed to be better. But they could have been tried, at least in the group. However, Deschamps did not do this.
France’s best players at Euro 2024 are goalkeeper Mick Maignan and N’Golo Kante, who is so professional that he didn’t lower his level even in Saudi Arabia. The thing is, their quality doesn’t depend on Deschamps. Well, or it does, but only a little. Maignan is a goalkeeper. And Kante is a hyper-professional who has been playing at a high level in every match since joining Leicester. They are cogs that don’t really need Deschamps’s tuning.
Those who needed a tune-up had a bad Euro. The semi-final is certainly not a failure in terms of the result. Especially since France lost to Spain in the fight. But Deschamps’ team disappointed in the game. And the semi-final will not make up for this disappointment. Only the title could do that.
İdman.biz