The French team sank last night in Split against Croatia last night. Beaten 2-0 in the 1/4 first leg of the Nations League, the Blues were helpless against the opposing collective. And if some regret not having seen the Dembélé of PSG on the Poljud lawn and that the tricolor defense was below everything, we must not forget the insipid performance of the French midfield. At the start, Didier Deschamps had clearly bet on the size and the size by starting Adrien Rabiot (1.91m), Mattéo Guendouzi (1.85m) and Aurélien Tchouame (1.87m). As for creativity, we will go back. And last night, it was seen. Faced with a well-gathered Croatian block and leaving very few spaces for the French attackers, none of these three, nor their replacements, has been able to break the lines, trigger decisive movement. Instead, we mainly have the right to school things, without much impact in comparison with the Modric-Kovacic pair.
In the second period, Kylian Mbappé often fell back from a notch to get the leather lower and try to initiate attacks. Some even wonder how Guendouzi was able to stay on the lawn for 84 minutes before being replaced by Manu Koné. Others regret not to see DESCHAMPS get out of the bench a more technical and offensive profile as Désiré Doué, the Parisian being able to evolve in the midfield, behind the attackers. Finally, there are those who wonder why Rayan Cherki and Akliouche Maghnes have still not had their chance. The debates on selected players will always exist, but yesterday, the lack of creativity of the midfield was too glaring. “It is not with the midfielder who is aligned … I have not fantasized of this environment. It says a lot about this French reservoir which is not at the level that we think is. I'm sorry, tchouameni, rabiot, guendouzi, you don't get up at night to see them play. And when you see those you brought in, either ”the journalist of Canal+Bertrand Latour.
“Our biggest problem was Antoine Griezmann. Now he is no longer there and it is a good thing for Croatia ”
And if this overall performance is screaming in France, the Croats also noticed that it was not the French midfielder they used to meet in the past. “When you have Mbappé, Dembélé and all these expensive players in the opposing team, whatever their creative weaknesses in the midfield, it's a huge job to eliminate them in two games and few people can do it. Zlatko Dalić showed that he had a solution to beat the tricolors, he found a game model that suits them least: their qualities are not sufficiently expressed, and their weaknesses are underlined “wrote Sportske Novosti who talks about our attack to evoke “Qualities at half mast facing the Croatian defensive block” and the lack of imagination of our environment by speaking of our “Weaknesses highlighted”. Finally, Izak Ante Simmer, journalist at Germanijaksaid to us that France has suffered in the middle since it lost an essential man: Antoine Griezmann.
“Everyone saw him. To be honest, if we talk about the environment, Croatia pays attention to this sector of play. With Kovacic and Modric, we have one of the best circles in Europe. In addition, Luka (Modric) is a future coach. He is very tactical, he loves to learn, be involved in tactical decisions. Luka was not just a player in this match, he was also a coach. This is why we think that our environment was better than that of France. Our biggest problem in the last matches against France was Antoine Griezmann. Now he's no longer there and it's a good thing for Croatia. Our midfielder was good in transition and distribution, while today French fields do not finish these actions where Griezmann finished them. As a number eight or number ten, Griezmann would play on one side and then he would go forward as an attacker. Personally, I do not see how Tchouameni, Camavonga or Guendouzi (or later Koné) could do the same thing … To be honest, we were surprised by one of the best teams in Europe. »» Will our Blues be able to reverse the trend on Sunday evening?
