Are French players overrated or is it Deschamps?

[AshamanKingpin]

You could see vs. Germany why they became world champions - their defending was insane.
For me they never played like champions. Time wasting, winning with 1 goal margin, parking the bus vs. small teams. I'm happy they are out.

This. Was super disappointed with their performance vs Germany. I think teams with talent of their level have a duty to play on the front foot like Germany did. All this 10 outfielders behind the ball and playing counter when you are the reigning world champions is weak.

 

[SCP]

They have a lot of good players, but going out today has nothing to do with the hype generated by the media or not. It's quite naive this days to say before a international tournament team A is much better than team B, so they are going to win the competition because their players are the best in the world. The last dominant International side was the Spain squad who had a lot of Barcelona and a couple of Madrid players with David Silva on the mix, the rest after that will depend on the moment of the sides ( Germany 2014, France 2018) or an unexpected accident by Mother Nature (Portugal 2016). That's simple.

 

[Bullhitter]

International tournaments are about very small margins and you're simply not going to be on the right side of them all the time.

Their talent pool, depth and production line means it's tough to see them being anything other than favourite for every tournament for the foreseeable but being favourite doesn't mean you're going to win.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

Could have used Martial on the left!!!

 

[caid]

Its not that shocking. Even in the world cup, they were professional and hard to beat. They weren't exactly a fluent, brilliantly balanced attacking team putting everyone to the sword. The team has always been less than the sum of its parts and with a couple of players like Mbappe having a bad tournament it was never going to be a cake walk. They narrowly lost on penalties against a team who put in a brilliant performance (despite not being brilliant on paper), these things happen. Thats cup football.

 

[RedRonaldo]

France does have the best players and best squad for this tournament. I think they are pretty much in control of the games they had played too. It’s just that, somehow, they loss on penalties shootout, while their best forward Mbappe somehow didn’t get a goal at all. Maybe they just take things for granted after winning the WC. They didn’t loss a single game in 90 mins to be fair.

 

[Acheron]

They need Zidane as their manager.

 

[Stacks]

I mean most of these points are very flimsy, not sure if you're being serious or not.

You could do the same thing with their 1998 World Cup by pointing out they needed extra time to beat Paraguay, couldn't score against Italy and only won on penalties, then played against Brazil after their best player Ronaldo had a seizure. And they had home advantage. In fact they won after 90 minutes 4 times out of 7 knockout games between 1998 and 2000 wins. 2018 World Cup win was more impressive than the 1998 win.

You've done this before haven't you?

 

[C'mon FC]

This. Was super disappointed with their performance vs Germany. I think teams with talent of their level have a duty to play on the front foot like Germany did. All this 10 outfielders behind the ball and playing counter when you are the reigning world champions is weak.

I'd rather call them world cup winner than World Champions.
I'd also like to exclude Mbappe and Kante from that who behave differently then for example Loris.
Furthermore if you check them pool of players and who didn't even make it into the squad/ got substituted (Kounde, Upamecano, Nkuku, Camavinga and more).

Actually I hope Deschamps will leave and someone who will let play more attractive football will overtake. With these players you could create a whole new legacy of Jogo Bonito.

 

[kouroux]

Every tournament this happens. Arrogant French fans start shouting 'ça rentre à la maison' based nothing more than misplaced Ligue 1 hype.

There ain't a single french fan who sings that French people are very pessimistic in general

 

[André Dominguez]

BEst players and best talent pool, a very defensive manager though.

 

[RoyH1]

The players have to share the blame, but this is on Deschamps. His players were not focused in the last 15 minutes. . He also left substitutions too late. That's on him as manager

 

[Sky1981]

The curse of world champion does badly in the next euros

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Is Deschamps generally well liked by the players? Not to be all body-language analyst or whatever, but in the break between full time and extra time, it looked like the players were ignoring him and his instruction. There was another instance where he seemed to usher Pogba over and Pogba just walked by him, Deschamps looked bemused.

The squad is definitely capable of more, given the talent within it. That seems to be a perennial issue in international football for more teams than just France. I suppose all the very best coaches aren't involved in it. The chance of any country getting a top class manager is fairly low.

 

[OL29]

Every tournament this happens. Arrogant French fans start shouting 'ça rentre à la maison' based nothing more than misplaced Ligue 1 hype.

Well played

 

[K Stand Knut]

is Mbappe the sacred cow?

The ultimately over-rated player in world football right now.

wouldn’t swap him for Rashford and I think he’s over-rated. Massively

 

[Abraxas]

Seems like a lot of good individuals in forward areas but not much of a cohesive unit. They are either attacking quite brilliantly for short periods, or resolutely defending with most men behind the ball, very little in between and it is quite apparent they drop off in a fairly atypical way for a modern side full of athletic players. They seemed to get caught out any time the game required something additional to the above.

Let's not go overboard though, the tendency now is for this short term fixation where fans bounce from opinion to opinion very quickly. They're still a side filled with top players, many of which have been extremely successful at all levels.

 

[Ish]

Think it's the manager, coupled with players out of form (Mbappe) and/or declining (Griezmann). Trying to shoehorn "big names" in cost them, along with their conservative/safety first approach by the manager, IMO. Their defence was abysmal though - which seems weird, given their wealth of options.

 

[diarm]

Why did they not call up a fit left back? Surely one of the Mendys or Kurzawa could've come in to solve the injury crisis?

 

[NotoriousISSY]

Lenglet is garbage.

Mbappe set up a couple of goals but ultimately by the standards he set himself, it was a poor tournament from him.

Deschamps in-game management is poor. Hindsight is wonderful, but at 3-1 he could have made different changes and definitely seen that game out!

 

[André Dominguez]

I actually rate Lenglet, bu he's just not consistent enough. Many ups and downs during a season.

 

[Bondi77]

I think they need a dose of Mourinho to tell them if they are overrated or not.

 

[Gonçalo Motta]

France is a Ferrari driven by a 85 year old grandma.

They are way too stacked and Deschamps instead of maximizing their strenghts, makes them play every single game like they are the underdogs.

Same problem as Portugal. The talent is there but they don't have the right manager to get the max profit out of the quality available.

It's not all about the coach though, some of the performances were a disgrace as well. Mbappe is a quality player and will probably be one of the top players of this generation but his ego and playing in the French League is killing his progression as a player imo.

Griezmann is still a good player and has his moments but he declined like he is in his mid thirties.

The problem isn't France going out because I think it would be somewhat acceptable going out to a team like Portugal, Italy or even Germany. There is a gap there but it isn't big enough that you couldn't see one of those NTs winning against them. But going out to a team that doesn't have one single player that would be a first team player for that France squad, its kinda insane.

 

[ryadmahrez]

They are overrated. They won a weak world cup. In 2018 all the big countries had a down year. This Euro was always gonna be difficult for them, with Germany, Italy and Spain back to a high level. At the WC other than France, Belgium(big time bottlers) and Croatia(no history) were the standouts. Go figure.

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

Am I wrong in vaguely remembering his Monaco side as an attacking one, seems completely in contrast with his current approach

 

[justsomebloke]

I know you're joking, but the one game Brazil didn't play Fred in this current Copa America was the one game they didn't win. Perhaps Fred is better than we give him credit for.

He is. Not that it takes much.

 

[tomaldinho1]

They weren't that dominant when they won the WC if you look at their results/draws but they were generally very solid and defensively sound, bar the Argentina game. This time they seemed to have sacrificed some of the defensive stability and they were playing some great football in fairness, particularly with Benzema in for Giroud but it means nothing when you don't finish your chances and your opponent does. They do have, in my opinion, the best squad on paper and the most depth so losing to Switzerland is a calamity and Deschamps will be held responsible.

 

[Wedge]

Somewhere King Eric is laughing at the water carrier.

 

[Dante]

I was told that France was so strong that even their second XI would be good enough to win the Euros. Should have played them then.

 

[Bebestation]

i always felt France stuck out because they were producing players in terms of quantity rather than a pure quality as such.

France was scary because they seemed they had 3-5 good to great player in every position rather than the best player of that position as such.

I mean look at the transfer talk this year people are craving camavinga or the Monaco CDM and the other younger French players - absolute hype for them like they could be the best of the future. I just don’t necessarily see it.

 

[0le]

For 20 minutes the football they played was sublime. But in the first half they were poor because of a weird tactical change by the manager. They will all be feeling a lot of regret today.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Well, they/he won the WC, the biggest prize in footy. England on the other hand...

 

[sincher]

Deschamps has done the lot, but last night he and the France senior players fecked it up.

 

[lysglimt]

Not picking Laporte looks even more bizarre.

Because Spain have looked so brilliant defensively ? Laporte has been poor at best

 

[kopviolator]

And now, let's hear what Graeme Souness feels about this and who is to blame...

 

[snk123]

No Martial No Party!

 

[Raredaredevil]

Its very common for reigning champions to fall of a cliff in the next tourney. They lacked attitude, as they didnt desire to go through as before the wc title. Their squad is the best by quite a margin. Think everybody involved is at fault for this result. Players, coaches, the media that led them to believe that talent would beat hard work etc.

That is what I've been saying. 100% spot-on. I was so sure that France and Portugal wouldn't win this Euros even though they were both favourites for the championship because it is very difficult to win back to back tournaments. Only Spain did it. France in particular was overwhelming favourites. Hyped up by the media and every pundit. Once you win the biggest prize in football, you will lack the motivation to keep going and every team you face will treat you like a cup final. They should have beaten Switzerland. They were complacent after going 3-1 up.

 

[choccy77]

I know you're joking, but the one game Brazil didn't play Fred in this current Copa America was the one game they didn't win. Perhaps Fred is better than we give him credit for.

He has his moments, but like Pogba, you never know when they are going to happen.

 

[youngrell]

Deschamps takes 90% of the blame for me. Team selection was awful. Pretty much every player they had on the pitch prefers to play centrally, even the wingbacks/full backs. The balance was terrible.

 

[Dante]

I know you're joking, but the one game Brazil didn't play Fred in this current Copa America was the one game they didn't win. Perhaps Fred is better than we give him credit for.

I know you're joking, but he isn't.