No, it’s always no. ZinĂ©dine Zidane stays straight in his boots with Warren Zaire-Emery. In his eyes, the Paris Saint-Germain player is a midfielder. This is why he summoned him in September, before his withdrawal, and why he recalled him in November, for the two League of Nations matches against Italy and Turkey.
However, we know that the player trained at PSG is more than a midfielder. With his club, Luis Enrique has used him in different positions since the start of the season: in the middle, of course (7 matches), but also left side (3 matches) and right side (3 matches), the position where he played again this weekend against Troyes.
We can understand the main idea of ​​Zinédine Zidane, who wants to use players in their best positions. But while the Blues have no shortage of manpower in the middle, it is much more complex among the full-backs. On the left, the coach renewed the bet Andy Diouf, understudying Adrien Truffert. On the right, the two September holders, Jules Koundé and Pierre Kalulu, are withdrawn.
Zidane sees beyond November for Zaire-Emery
In his list given on Friday, Zidane recalled Malo Gusto, who was No. 2 behind KoundĂ© in this position at the end of the Didier Deschamps era. But once Kalulu also gave up, the coach had to raise hopes, by calling up SaĂ«l Kumbedi, a player who plays… in German D2, at Wolfsburg.
Here again, we can understand the choice to bet on a young player (21 years old), who can embody the future in this position, rather than bringing back an older element like Jonathan Clauss (34 years old), certainly in good shape with OGC Nice. Perhaps it was an opportunity to see what Zaire-Emery could give in an international context, as a full-back, in Italy. “ZZ”, who sees further than these two November meetings, decided otherwise.
Last Friday, the new boss of the Blues explained, in essence, that we do not act in the club as in the selection. In other words, it’s one thing if Luis Enrique exploits the versatility of the players on his squad. A selector can theoretically rely on a wider pool, which allows him to rely only on specialists in the position. Is Zaire-Emery not becoming one?
