The midfield is a sector under construction in the French team. This is not new, and it is even more visible since the arrival of Zinédine Zidane as coach.
Didier Deschamps’ successor has reshaped this sector of the game, opting for more technical, forward-looking players. “Survivor” of the previous era, Adrien Rabiot started against Italy. But the AC Milan player has suffered a lot of criticism from Blues supporters on social networks, who are calling for him to be left out of the eleven.
His overall performance was not convincing, despite all the efforts made on the field. At the same time, multiple Internet users have criticized Rabiot for the goal conceded by the French team where, however, Lucas Da Cunha initially appears to be the main culprit. There are several reasons for this, especially when we analyze the action in detail.
Rabiot or Da Cunha, whose fault is it?
It all starts with the choice of pass. Should this ball be given to a player with his back to the game, full axis? In the screenshot below, we see that Da Cunha is extending his arm to his right. Because he demands the ball in this area, or because he asks Rabiot to pass towards Adrien Truffert? Hard to say. The problem also comes from the fact that Da Cunha does not see Bastoni’s pressing, which arrives behind his back, even if he performs a “scan” on his right before receiving the ball. Faced with the game, Rabiot could have better understood the situation.
From the main angle, we can clearly see that the simplest solution would have been to find Truffert directly. Da Cunha could have put it back with a touch of the ball to his side, too, but he is not helped by Rabiot’s pass. This is the second important point. The ball, which takes off clearly from the ground, is not easy to control for the Como midfielder. Even if, once again, we can think that Da Cunha did not see Bastoni, which explains this somewhat long check in a dangerous area.
The last point concerns the difference in experience. We can more easily forgive an error to a young player who is playing his second international match, and who has just discovered the Champions League, than to a captain like Rabiot, 68 selections and 60 C1 matches under the clock. Enough to explain for the critics falling on him, while Da Cunha benefits from a certain leniency.
