tomwfootballL'Equipe's France team for the 2010 World Cup, as published in edition 20,367 on Wednesday 14 April 2010.
20.04.2010
Jaap StamThen L'Equipe did not watch French players at all recently. Ribery in the middle, Henry leading the attack, Gallas in the heart of defense? Come on, give me a break.
21.04.2010
kabulblueA very painful team for supporters of the French to look at. I have to agree with Jaap Stam that the authors of this team clearly have not been watching much football this season. If I was France manager (as if!) I would go with something like this 4-2-1-3:
-----------Lloris
Abidal--Gallas--Boumsong--Evra
------Diarra----Toulalan
-----------Gourcouff
Ribery------------------Malouda
------------Anelka
Subs: Mandanda, Henry, Ben Arfa, Sagna, Clichy, plus others.
http://kabulblue.blogspot.com/
24.04.2010
tomwfootballJaap Stam, kabulblue: you can't really accuse the journalists from France's number one sport newspaper of not watching much football! It's kind of their job.
The thinking behind their team is that Toulalan has been playing very well at centre-back for Lyon this season and Gourcuff would have more time on the ball playing alongside Diarra than in the classic playmaker's position.
Abidal's a left-back or a centre-back, incidentally, not a right-back.
24.04.2010
Jaap StamWell, they are certainly bad at their jobs :) I mean, come on, Henry, leading the attack? It's not 2006 anymore. He has been a bench warmer this season, and off to MLS next. I think that should tell something.
24.04.2010
ZolaOf all the French forwards Anelka have been the most in form and consistent goal scorer this season. Furthermore, he's done quite well as a lone striker when Drog was off to ANC. I understand his relationship with the French National team heads is not in immaculate condition and he is not a poster kid for the French media.
If I were to select the strikers and formation, it would be a 442 diamond and I'd start Anelka and Saha up front. Henry and Benzema would be on the bench.
25.04.2010
kabulblueTom...thanks for your response. Again I am with Jaap Stam on this. If the L'Equipe journalists are suggesting this team then they sure as hell haven't been doing their job properly and actually watching football this season. Henry as a starter? Ribery in the middle? Toulalan out of position? One defensive midfielder? Maybe Domenech has blinded them with his black magic...
I know that Abidal is a left or centre-back but that doesn't mean he could not be very effective at right-back. Philipp Lahm or Javier Zanetti have both proved over the years that regardless of your stronger foot you can play in the other position. I just do not think that Sagna is good enough and think that in having a "wrong-footed" player on the right you can negate the number of "inverted wingers" that teams use nowadays. Plus it helps solve the Evra vs. Abidal debate.
Toulalan has been excellent in the centre of defence when required but surely he should just do that...only play there when required. In my proposed set-up Gourcuff would be playing a similar role to Sneijder for Inter with two defensive-minded players selected so that he can play the "classic playmaker" role. That way you have Toulalan, Diarra and Gourcuff in their best positions supporting Ribery, Malouda and Anelka all in their best positions.
25.04.2010
kabulblueBy the way Tom your blog is very insightful and I have just seen your post about Gourcuff being the "new Pirlo" which I can certainly see suiting his style as he develops. Someone on ZM once said that they thought Zidane would have ended up a deep lying playmaker if he had been coming into top-level football now which again kind of made sense.
Thinking about it more...I can sort of see the logic in L'Equipe's formation with Ribery and Malouda and Govou interchanging in that supporting 3 and perhaps Ribery dropping deeper to become the central playmaker. I do, however, think it is a risk at the highest level to have no other defensive support for Diarra.
In effect the Gourcuff-Diarra axis would not be far away from the Alonso-Diarra axis at Madrid but as we saw against Barca (and Lyon) a three man midfield can get the upper hand against a creator/destroyer partnership and I think they would be swamped should they play Spain or Brazil.
26.04.2010
yytttoulalan centre defender????
14.05.2010
yytttoulalan centre defender????
14.05.2010
yytt-----------lorris
sagna--gallas--abidal--evra
---------toulalan
lass--------------ribery
---gourcouff---henry
----------anelka
14.05.2010
