Re: France Thread - Au revoir
I do partly blame Blanc for this.
His set-up was too negative today and he tried to 'defend' Spain instead of playing to France' strengths and believing in themselves.
He put Debuchy as Right midfielder and Reveillere in team when he could've put Debuchy where he's been France's best player and that's RB and have a player like Valbuena/Nasri or Ben Arfa on right.
France tried to STOP Spain from even before the game with their tactical set up and intent instead of try to WIN the game.
Problem with these defensive tactics is once you go a goal down, and you will at some point through a mistake or relentless pressure or even an unlucky bounce, then it's very hard to suddenly try to go for the game and create many chances.
So he ended up taking out Debuchy who never gets tired and was doing okay and bringing in a sulking Menez who does nothing good but get yet another yellow card.
I remain a fan of Blanc and think he's a very good manager but France lost a narrow game to one of the world's best teams and the future remains bright.
Just have to get rid of players like Malouda who was another one of Blanc's mistakes (he started twice and both times France played bad as he doesn't attack nor defend, in CENTRAL of midfield for fuck's sake!) and tell Menez to get his act together if he wants to play for National Team. He'll always have a shitty attitude though so I wouldn't bang on that. Luckily for France, they've got plenty of quality players and don't need him.
Good tournament for Cabaye and M'vila did well today as well. Clichy was also a welcomed change for Evra. Lloris saved a couple one-on-ones as well.
I actually thought BEnzema was a lot better today than his previous games. Not only did he try hard, but he got Ramos a yellow card, drew a couple fouls and deliver 'some' nice passes. A lot of times him and Ribery miscommunicated though and their passes to each other (1-two's) went stray.
All in all, France isn't a bad team and I think apart from Germany or Spain, they could beat anyone. So it's also a bit of bad luck to get Spain. I think they could beat Portugal who's already in semifinals and they're superior to England and Italy as well.