The Qatar World Cup, which will open in three weeks, as the defending champion of the French team is only behind five-star Brazil, ranking second in the championship odds table, but from the back to the central midfield The Gallic Rooster is conservative to the intrusion of various problems, the injury of key players such as Varanecante Pogba, and the forward Mbappe is distracted by off-field strife, I am afraid that the most gratifying thing for coach Deschamps is the return of Ballon d'Or winner Benzema to the national team, compared to the Gallic rooster who defeated the big dark horse Croatia in the final four years ago, What moves did you make the right moves along the way, and finally won the Hercules Cup again after 24 years? Let's do a simple review in combination with the process of winning the last World Cup for the French team.
Four years ago, France lifted the Hercules Cup again after 24 years
Fish and bear's paws should not be obtained at the same time, and those who take bear's paws are also taken
In the real world, not only in the football circle, after many years, few people will remember the third place or even the runner-up, but the championship must be remembered by history for a longer time, since the successful expansion of the army in 98, each World Cup 32 teams can make people impressed, the team that can not be forgotten for a long time in addition to the final championship is a handful, 4 years ago that tournament, in addition to France standing on the highest podium, the first thing that can be remembered is nothing more than the Croatian team that won the Magic Ball Award in 18 years, It was a huge disappointment for defending champions Germany who finished bottom of the group, and the thrilling group stage between Portugal and Spain;
Such as five-star Brazil, Belgium, which once dominated the world ranking for a long time, and Argentina, which was eliminated by France, etc., the memories left by these teams four years ago have gradually become blurred with the passage of time, but the Gallic rooster has never been forgotten, and this is also the biggest motivation for them, who were not regarded as the biggest favourites at the time, and inspired them to persevere all the way before the final whistle;
Although the elimination of Argentina Portugal, who owned Mero, was regrettable, the champions France were destined to be the biggest winners four years ago
As soon as the results of this year's World Cup group stage draw came out, with Australia eliminating Peru, France and the Danish Kangaroos once again gathered in the group stage of the World Cup, recall that 4 years ago, the French team faced Australia for the first time, although it finally won the opening goal, but fans who have watched the game must have the impression that in the face of the Kangaroo Army, which has gradually become Asian, the Gallic rooster won such an ugly and laborious scene, Denmark and South American mysterious division Peru, which have always had dark horse potential in the competition, Can't they be asked to put a question mark on whether they can qualify?
Fortunately, coach Deschamps was still in a clear mind at the time, knowing that this team that lost to Portugal on the doorstep of 2 years ago and regretted missing out on the European Cup title, obviously did not have the strength to make a difference in both the process and the result, so from the second group stage against Peru, began to tighten the fence as a top priority, and then replaced 433 with 4231 to win the second victory, the final round with Denmark 0:0 hand in hand with the team of Denmark 0-0 similar to the tacit ball of 3 group stage performance, directly let their own fans scold a dog blood sprinkler, But at that time, Deschamps still knew exactly what he and the team wanted: to fight for the title, to win the game on his knees.
Deschamps, who learned the lessons of the 16-year European Championship final defeat on his doorstep, has clearly become more pragmatic in the last World Cup
Deschamps, who has experienced how to win the title in 98, knows how to make himself and the team "famous"
In the group stage that still has a chance to make mistakes, the French team was refreshed by a narrow victory against the Australians, and I have to say that Deschamps and his team can go to the end, really thanks to the Kangaroos, after all, the most expensive team at the time of the World Cup in '18 was the Gallic Rooster, The total value of the 23-man squad reached 1.41 billion euros, ranking first, ahead of England (1.39 billion euros) and third Brazil (1.27 billion euros), and the figure of 1.41 billion euros also set a new record for the highest value in the previous World Cup. Naturally, he knows that if he misses the opportunity to win the championship at home in 16 years, if he can't hand over a decent answer sheet in 18 years, what awaits him may be a termination notice from French football;
Therefore, after the trial and error of the first group stage, when it came to the knockout round, which could not allow for more mistakes, Deschamps no longer hesitated, 4231 is the main formation he continues to win, in addition to the superstar Mbappe and the yet-to-be-lost Griezmann, there is also an efficient and pure center Giroud, wearing the No. 9 shirt, Giroud can be said to be a bridgehead tailored for Deschamps 4231, although the Gallic Rooster does not rely on his goals to score, but if there is no such a tactical fulcrum figure, I am afraid that the World Cup result of 18 years will definitely end in a different ending;
Four years ago, the Australian kangaroo gave the French a head-start drink, which also strengthened Deschamps' determination to reuse Grand Giroud in future competitions
Although he did not start in the first game against Australia, from the beginning of the second game until the final, Giroud established the indispensability of the fulcrum of the central striker, Lemar, who is good at passing the threatening, the wind-chasing teenager Mbappe, the all-round Griezmann and the gamer Dembele, etc., so that Deschamps' 433 completed the combination of continuous transpositioning, and after the tragic victory in the first game, the position of the 4231 changed determined that Giroud was the most critical part of the team; In the knockout stage to create 11 goals, and has an average of 99km of running distance, an average of 372 passes per game, an average of 45% possession per game, converted into an average of 12 shots on goal and 4 shots on target per game, compared to the perfect data of passing, the French team's attack can be described as sharp and efficient, such a Gallic rooster that has completed a gorgeous turn in the cup process, the only person who knows it best is naturally Deschamps, who has personally experienced how to win the championship in 98.
The three group games, especially the first against Australians, gave Deschamps' tactical thinking to win gradually prevailed
No one in the French team knows the meaning better than Deschamps about the trade-off between the scene and the result
The first game of the round of 16 met the Pampas eagles led by Messi, the Argentine's technical advantage in front of the French team, but became the best experimental object of the Gallic rooster to win the tactics, the French used Mbappe's amazing speed of 39.2km/h to repeatedly impact the Argentine's backfield, the three of them in midfield, Cante Matuidi and Pogba to tackle, physical strength, physical strength, physical body, in the face of Argentine players with average physical conditions, they amplified the black and hard advantage infinitely, In the game, Deschamps also often let Giroud and Mbappe switch places, putting Mbappe at the front of the team, Argentina, the bottom of the defensive speed, has long been incompetent after multiple rounds of sprinting by the 19-year-old, even if the front field can score 3 goals, but the back field is constantly rushed by Mbappe 708 behind, and finally scored 1 goal less than the opponent to eliminate the game;
The Argentine's technical superiority over France became the best test for the Gallic Rooster's tactics to win
When it came to the round of 8 against another South American powerhouse, Uruguay, unlike the Pampas Eagles, the Uruguayan was much higher in terms of hardness and defensive intensity in the game, such a more European style team, obviously let the French have to face the problem of the century of breaking the iron barrel formation, because Matuidi on the left could not play, Tory took his place, and the Gallic rooster also exchanged a way of breaking the dense defense in the game, that is, leading the snake out of the hole; After waiting for the ball to pass to the front, Pogba, who is good at long balls, constantly dispatches the direction of attack, always making the opponent tired between the ball and the landing point, on the one hand, in order to drag down the opponent, on the other hand, it is deliberately exposed to the opponent, so that the Uruguayan grabs the ball and thinks that he can have the opportunity to fight back, in fact, this is the passing and control technology that Deschamps knows best without the Spanish team, so he uses the other party's worst way, let them throw themselves into the net, and when the Uruguayan himself begins to choose to take the initiative, The French's tactics were more than half successful, and their impenetrable defensive advantage in the past was gone;
8-for-4 Deschamps devised a deliberate flaw for the Uruguayan to grab the ball and think he would have a chance to fight back
In the face of the European Red Devils, who have obviously become more famous than strong in recent years, the French even played the defensive counterattack as a handy, and although the final 1:0 victory brought the team a ticket to the final, the sneers and criticisms of the outside world after the game also made Deschamps at that time bear great public opinion pressure, after all, in the Belgian view, the French in that game were simply using a football tactic that went back decades to destroy a global World Cup semifinal, Mbappe's deliberate delay at the end of the game was also a microcosm of Deschamps' tactics;
After the Frenchman took advantage of the set-piece to score first, the Belgian, who had previously used his turtle defense to take out Brazil, was also forced to attack and surround the French team to try to equalize, but on an occasion like the semifinals, how can the Frenchman cooperate with you like the Brazilian? So the Gallic roosters who did not come out of the hole finally advanced to the final with Umtiti's goal, and the Barca waste central defender responded to the outside world's questions after the game: everyone will only remember the champion, no one will remember the third place.
Umtiti's header helped the Frenchman cross the Belgian level
The game was even more "impressive" but it was Mbappe's repeated trick to delay time
When the final saw that the opponent was Croatia, who was older in the squad and not conservative in style, I believe that Deschamps at that time had more than eighty percent certainty in his heart about winning the championship, after all, in the eyes of most people, the plaid army is still a dark horse role, and the French team broke into the final with the highest price in the top 32, which naturally became a competition in the finals of recent competitions with a relatively large disparity in the strength of the two reverses on paper;
When facing the 33-year-old veteran with the Magic Flute, Deschamps has already grasped the Achilles heel of this key link, that is, after helping Real Madrid complete the busy season of winning the Champions League for the third time in a row, the Croatian No. 10 still has enough fuel in the tank when he fights for the seventh game, so on the basis of the midfield full of black and hard tackles responsible for interception, he tried his best to use the mobility of Gritzmann, Mbappe and others in the front, and finally put all doubts to rest with a 4:2 victory. Although the score seemed to be a true portrayal of the strength of both teams, France's counter-attack, set-pieces and individual ability in key moments throughout the game made Croatia, an aging and inactive squad, unable to stop.
The Frenchman also used the 4231 formation for three consecutive knockout matches
When the final faced Croatia, the big dark horse with the main team of veterans, Deschamps actually had already planned how to deal with it
Once the sea was difficult to water, but Wushan is not a cloud
Only 4 years later, although most of the core faces of the defending champions have not changed much, how many of them are not going downhill in the past 4 years, which should have been in the rising stage of their careers in these 4 years? In the 2018 World Cup, Mbappe or Pogba in the team's squad is not the key to winning the championship, the tall and unattractive back Kante is the backbone of Deschamps' squad, after all, from the foxes of the year to the Blues later, and then to the national team Kante absent and the difference between the results of the game is visible to the naked eye, although he can not directly contribute goals and assists, but as long as Kante remains healthy can ensure the lower limit of the team's play, Kante who is unable to participate in the World Cup early today, I can only hope that the new generation of beast-waisted Joan Armeni can play the role of a good replacement;
The absence of absolute workhorse N'Golo Kante at the back has left France with more hope for rookie Joan Armenica Mavinga
And from the beginning of the European Cup to the end of last season's UEFA Nations League, it is not difficult to see that N'Golo Kante, who is increasingly plagued by injuries, is still the indispensable first choice of France's back, but his partner is a hairstylist who has long been different, or a gradually passer-by Rabiot, Tolisso and Gondolzi, or superstar Joan Armeni, they seem to be unable to surpass it, and Deschamps, who can draw the midfielder of 18 years, will burn high incense, Therefore, the first thing the French team on this trip to Qatar must do is not to defend the title, but to avoid the mistake of 20 years of humiliating defeat in East Asia.
Kante was usually intimate and inconspicuous in the team but played a crucial role in France's victory four years ago
In addition to the spell of being out of the group of defending champions in recent years, Deschamps needs to deal with the continuous problem of injuries and illnesses immediately
In addition to the position of the midfielder, Varane in the back line has been seriously injured since joining Manchester United, his partner Umtiti has become a laughing stock in world football last time, Lucas Hernandez failed when Bayern also failed, but his brother Te'o gradually became the team's most reliable left-hand leader in Milan; Among the frontcourt players, Griezmann is no longer the Atletico striker who was still at the Metpolitano four years ago, and the young Mbappe has almost achieved achievements that his peers cannot surpass: World Cup champion, top scorer in five major leagues, league titles for many consecutive seasons, just one step away from winning the Champions League... At just 23 years old, he chose to look "forward" between Real Madrid and Paris, which had to disappoint all fans, compared to Joan Armeni and Camavinga's choice of Real Madrid, which also made the outside world put the hope for the revival of the French team on the younger generation.
In addition to the new injuries and infighting in the squad and the practical experience of young substitutes, these are all problems that plague the prospects of defending champions Qatar World Cup
Write at the end
"The stakes are constant, the trade-off is uncertain", the absolute main player Kante at the back is injured, and even if Varane Pogba can catch the last train, how many points can he maintain his form? Can a new generation of internationals such as Joan Armenica Mavenga play a battle in Qatar to establish their national team status? How much is left in the tank of Mr. Ballon d'Or the older and more demonic Mr. Benzema is left? This series of uncertainties, coupled with the experience of consecutive defending champions in the group stage, will greatly test Deschamps' ability to select and use soldiers, and as Argentina, Belgium and other teams that they defeated on the way to winning the championship four years ago, if they meet again, they will definitely not easily miss the opportunity to calculate old sorrows and new hatreds.
Perhaps the only good news for the defending champions, who are in the midst of an eventful autumn, compared to the team four years ago, is the return of Ballon d'Or Benzema