This Sunday, the French team closed its international break with a new success on the Azerbaijan pitch (1-3). With a reshuffled team, Didier Deschamps surely appreciated the overall performance of his team despite some defensive alerts. A performance which allowed several players to score points a few months before a World Cup which will be the last for the French coach and which will therefore be very important for the Blues. In the other direction, just a stone’s throw from such a deadline, places can also be lost quickly. In this sense, several players were not necessarily convinced during the last gathering.
The thorny case Rayan Cherki
Maghnes Akliouche produced a quality rally. While the Blues staff had even hesitated to recall him for his average performances and his self-effacing temperament since his arrival at Clairefontaine in September, the Monegasque shone. Scorer this Sunday, he was able to assert himself and meet the expectations placed on him. Author of an XXL performance against Azerbaijan, which earned him to be voted man of the match on our site, Malo Gusto now appears obvious at the right-back position. Very well integrated into the group and with a remarkable entry against Ukraine on Thursday (4-0), Hugo Ekitiké also scored points. The same cannot be said of Rayan Cherki. Endowed with an almost unique talent in today’s football, the OL-trained player made a breathtaking debut with Manchester City.
But for these debuts with the Blues, this second gathering was not a real success. Brilliant last June for his first steps in Blue, the number 10 of the Skyblues notably scored an exceptional goal during an anthology entry against Spain. At the time of writing, Cherki raises some questions, we were told internally. After missing the previous two due to a muscle injury, the Lyonnais did not have the expected impact against Ukraine despite starting as a playmaker. His difficult complementarity with Olise was also singled out, with both players struggling to find automatisms. Thus, the French staff came to the conclusion that combining the two men could be complicated and that the ambidextrous 22-year-old could flourish more in a supersub role. Its short-term international future does not seem threatened, however.
The staff of the French team observes several young profiles
Same story for Ibrahima Konaté. In difficulty since the start of the season with Liverpool, the 26-year-old defender explained this Sunday at the microphone of Téléfoot that he wanted to become a starter again with the Blues. A few hours later, the former RB Leipzig was present in the Blues’ eleven in Azerbaijan. After three minutes of play, Konaté stood out with a dubious placement which allowed the locals to open the scoring to everyone’s surprise. This is the reality of Konaté’s current dynamic: plagued by doubt, the defender makes a series of blunders which have the gift of making the staff and Didier Deschamps doubt. According to our information, Ibrahima Konaté is surely the player who is the most criticized internally. Enough to question his presence at the World Cup next summer? Certainly not, but a warning for him to wake up as quickly as possible and quickly return to the level he was at last season.
At the same time, the Blues staff continues to observe other young profiles. After numerous injuries and players who are not necessarily present on the field, Didier Deschamps’ teams are on the lookout and could call up an inexperienced player at international level between now and the World Cup. At the left defender position, where Théo Hernandez is no longer sovereign, the name of Dayann Méthalie returns. Author of a remarkable debut with Toulouse, the 19-year-old left defender can also rely on successful performances with the Espoirs to hope to be called up in the future. In the midfield, the name of Ayyoub Bouaddi is necessarily studied. The 19-year-old midfielder from LOSC is appreciated and, despite competition from Morocco on this issue, is on the Blues’ radar. Other names like that of Eli Junior Kroupi in attack are being observed by a staff which is preparing the ground for the future but which should not upset its plans for the major deadlines which are coming however.
