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| Didier Deschamps's side host Japan in a friendly on Friday, before travelling to Spain for a World Cup qualifier next week. |
Didier Deschamps may have been overlooked for the
France
job in both 2008 and 2010, but upon finally taking up the role in July
this year, he found the problems facing the national coach had barely
changed.
As in 2010 and, to a lesser extent, 2008, France
emerged from this year's major tournament chastened by underachievement
and embarrassed by reports of off-pitch turmoil. The fallout from Euro
2012 was nowhere near as painful as it was after the rank humiliation of
the 2010 World Cup, nor were the performances as poor as they were in
South Africa or at Euro 2008, but Deschamps knows that there is
nonetheless, if not a full rebuilding process, then a period of
recalibration to be undertaken.
For all the criticism of
France's conservative approach against Spain in the Euro 2012
quarter-finals, and all the tales of changing-room unrest that abounded,
Laurent Blanc clearly left the team in a far healthier state than he
had found it. Three months after taking up the reins from his former
international team-mate, Deschamps is already making his mark by
attempting to create a side that packs more of a punch on the pitch, but
generates fewer headlines off it.
In his first press
conference after taking over, Deschamps said he wanted to build a side
that "imposes itself on its opponents", and the most striking thing
about the teams that he has fielded in his three games so far has been
their physicality.
In all those matches he paired Paris
St-Germain's Mamadou Sakho with Montpellier's Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa at
centre-back, an inexperienced alliance with an average age of just 22.5,
but one that bristles with raw power and brute strength. Olivier
Giroud, the strapping Arsenal target man, has started two of those
games, and Deschamps is so eager to find a place for him in his starting
XI that he has obliged Karim Benzema to vacate his preferred starting
position at the tip of the attack. The Real Madrid striker played
slightly behind Giroud in the 0-0 draw with Uruguay in August,
Deschamps's first game in charge, and in last month's 3-1 win at home to
Belarus, he started the game on the right flank.
Bafétimbi
Gomis, another very direct centre-forward, has also been recalled, and
when injury prevented Abou Diaby from taking his place in the squad for
the forthcoming games against Japan and Spain, Deschamps turned to
Moussa Sissoko, the Toulouse powerhouse who was called up just once by
Blanc, in August 2010.
In many ways, Deschamps's approach
is at cross-purposes to Blanc's. Deschamps's 2010 title-winning
Marseille side were seen by some as unworthy successors to the
swash-buckling Bordeaux team that Blanc had led to the Ligue 1 crown 12
months earlier, and Deschamps's reputation for pragmatism does not seem
likely to desert him anytime soon. Where Blanc sought to flood his squad
with small, technical players, Deschamps's teams are all about physical
impact. You suspect you would not catch the former Marseille coach
lamenting the preponderance of big, black players in France's centres de
formation as Blanc did in the secretly taped conversation that sparked
last year's race row.
Deschamps has also taken steps to
improve the mood in a changing room that became the subject of keen
media focus after reports emerged of confrontations between Samir Nasri
and Alou Diarra and Blanc and Hatem Ben Arfa following France's damaging
loss to Sweden at the Euros.
Deschamps's first squad was
notable for the inclusion of the Lille pair Rio Mavuba and Mickaël
Landreau, both of whom are reputed to have a calming influence in the
changing room, both of whom were repeatedly overlooked by Blanc. While
Mavuba, 28, hopes to construct a France career à la Makelele (Claude
Makelele, a fellow holding midfielder, did not impose himself in the
national set-up until he was 27), Landreau's role seems to reside
strictly behind the scenes.
Hugo Lloris and Steve Mandanda
are firmly established as the top two goalkeepers in the squad, but
although Lloris was initially confined to the bench at Tottenham and
Mandanda, like Landreau, has gone through a dip in form, it is former
third-choice goalkeeper Cédric Carrasso who has had to make way. "It's a
personal choice, not a sporting choice," said the Bordeaux man. "I
understand."
Sanctions fell on Nasri, Ben Arfa, Jérémy
Ménez and Yann M'Vila after the Euros (suspensions for Nasri and Ménez,
while all four players had their bonuses withheld), and Deschamps is not
a man to indulge troublemakers. Nasri's three-game ban for his petulant
behaviour in Ukraine has now expired, but he was left out of the most
recent squad. "It is not the right time for him to return. I prefer to
wait a little," explained Deschamps. M'Vila has been demoted to the
Under-21s, while Ben Arfa – who had several clashes with Deschamps
during his time at Marseille – was overlooked entirely. Symbolically,
Deschamps has also introduced heavier fines for misdemeanours than those
in place during Blanc's tenure.
It would appear that Nasri
now has legitimate cause to fear for his international future, but Adil
Rami feels the controversy whipped up by the Manchester City
midfielder's various outbursts at the media should not be overstated.
The Valencia centre-back told L'Équipe earlier this week: "It's a shame
what happened at the end [of Euro 2012], this story of the image of the
France team. Because the objective set by [French Football Federation
president] Noel Le Graët was to get through the group phase. We did
that, and we lost in the quarter-finals against the best team in Europe
and the world. During the warm-up matches, in France, the 23 players
were exemplary. We spent time with the fans, we signed autographs. We
were supported, and I felt that. Then a player had a problem, which
happens… But I think that everything was exaggerated."
Having
imposed his authority on the squad, the obstacle now looming on
Deschamps's horizon is the World Cup qualifier against Spain in Madrid
next week. Injuries and suspensions have already forced his hand.
Yanga-Mbiwa's suspension means a new centre-back partnership will need
to be tested against Japan at Stade de France on Friday, while injuries
to Mavuba, Diaby and Lassana Diarra leave France worryingly short of
experience in central midfield.
With 18 caps, Yohan Cabaye
is Les Bleus' most experienced available player in that area of the
pitch, and he is likely to be joined by PSG's Blaise Matuidi (six caps)
and either Lyon's Maxime Gonalons or Etienne Capoue of Toulouse, who
have only five caps between them. "It's not a worry, it's a reality,"
says Deschamps. "I'm not worried and I don't want my players to be.
We'll fight with the weapons we have."
Blanc was castigated
for sending France out to face Spain in Donetsk in a completely
untested configuration that saw full-backs Mathieu Debuchy and Anthony
Réveillère lined up one in front of the other on the right flank in a
vain attempt to limit the influence of Jordi Alba. Never one to shy away
from a daunting confrontation, Deschamps will hope his carefully
galvanised side do not give in quite so meekly when the teams resume
hostilities next week, but with six points from their first two
qualifying matches, France already appear to be in tune with his winning
mentality.
