Remy can work on the wings but Gameira can't, he can't dribble to save his life and i always find it funny when he tries to. Gameiro's game is all about the runs he makes but he's not suited at all for playing on the wings. And based on current form i'm not sure i'll take him over Gomis who i think should make it to the euros because he brings something different than the other attackers imo. Menez will be in the list too imo as a winger.
Actually i follow lille like every other french team every weekend so i've seen enough of Balmont, and i stand by what i said that he's not better than Cabaye.
But that's exactly what I'm getting at, I know Gameiro's limits. We always throw dribblers out there. I was just wondering what the attack would look like with a more direct winger. All I want him to do is run and pass the ball, to cut in when the opportunity presents itself. Not dribble around the 18 for 30s and let the other team reorganize their defense.
This discussion about the ideal style of a France winger is interesting. For those of you who don't like the Ribery/Menez/Ben Arfa style of play, who would you name as a template player for the ideal. Remy? Valbuena? I would be curious to see which NT players have the best stats in the winger position as far as assists and goals per minutes played.
starting 11 for the EURO 2012 CAPTAIN : MEXES [LINEUP-4-4-2] Benzema, Giroud, Ménez, M'Vila, Nasri, Ribery, Mathieu, Rami, Mexes, Debuchy, Lloris, [/LINEUP-4-4-2] Ruffier Giroud Gameiro Martin Valbuena Sakho Réveillère Abidal Mandanda Griezmann Gonalons Rémy Amalfitano or Bodmer
It's not that I don't like those guys style. They have great skills and are an asset to any team. It's just often that style of wing play has bogged our attack down, and those players in particular seem unwilling/unable to adjust on the fly. I want to see more wing play like I saw from Arsenal when they thrashed Blackburn over the weekend, speedy players who are willing to carry the ball to the end line looking for a cut pass back into the box. We have to do a better job of stretching opponents defenses. Remy is probably my ideal in our current crop. He's got everything I want. He's got the pace to play out wide, can dribble well if need be, but has the directness of a CF (which he really is anyway). And he is a fine finisher (also due to the fact he's actually a CF), more so than Valbuena, which makes him even more dangerous up front. As for Matt's line up. The CM pairing is the what bothers me the most. I don't think M'Vila is at the level yet to boss the midfield at the Euros, and Nasri will do nothing to help him.
How about Menez's run and cross to Benzema against Brazil. Is that what you mean? Ribery has been having some great appearances for Bayern in the same role your talking about.
I don't really have a problem with this formation and i think it can actually work out. Nasri always helps on the defensive aspects even when he sucks on the offensive end. But in this formation, you'll need the wingers (atleast one of them) to really participate in the defensive end too when the other team is attacking and that's where the problem of having Menez and Ribery on the wings in this formation come up. They are both players that don't really like defending so imo it won't be wise starting both of them at the same time in this 4-2-4 formation. I'll rather play Nasri on the right, Ribery on the left and Cabaye in the middle with M'Villa. In your 23 man squad, i noticed you made the mistake of having Giroud in the starting 11 and on the bench too lol i'll replace the one on the bench with Gomis. Now with that been said, if we're honnest to ourselves, there're at least 5/6 players in the squad you listed that have no chance of making it to the squad (except there are massive injuries to some of the players you didn't include). It's not because they're not good, but because they don't seem to be in Laurent Blanc's plans. While i might prefer Debuchy to Réveillère, it seems to be the other way round for Laurent Blanc. And with Sagna back from injury, Debuchy will be 3rd in the pecking order, meaning he'll likely watch the euros from his living room. I don't see Blanc benching Abidal for Mathieu but i reckon Mathieu might make it to the squad since he can also play as a winger, but the only way he makes it to the squad is if Blanc can over look his loyalty to Malouda (who's clearly out of form) because imo there's no way both of them will make it to the squad, it will be one or the other. 3 players that will definitely make it to the squad unless they're injured imo are Cabaye, Alou Diarra & Patrice Evra. And Lloris will likely be the captain imo
Balmont is not having a good year. He's good since his season at Toulouse. It's been almost 10 years. I haven't said that he should get a call up. I said that Martin proven much more than Cabaye with the national team and that Balmont - and Mavuba too - was more influent in Lille midfield than Cabaye. Balmont is strong, a strong stamina, percussion and so on. Sorry, I'm not looking at Cabaye differently because he made an impact in a mediocre team like Newcastle in EPL. He's just someone incapable of being good with the NT, I don't think the standard of the national team went that low that someone like Cabaye can be a starter. The Evra syndrome. At least he 's at M.U, him. Keep your Valbuena and Cabaye where they deserve to be, on the bench. Anyway, Menez won't be left out of the national team. With Ribery in a good day, he's the only player capable of dynamiting a defense with his dribbles and insane speed. When you are playing against a compact teams, you need players like him even he has his huge weaknesses. Unlike Valbuena there is a lot of explosivity in his dribbles. He also likes to go lower on the pitch to touch more balls, exchanging positions too... He's annoying with his selfishness but his qualities can bring a lot to the actual NT even only as a joker. As for Gameiro, it depends of what you want to do with him. Now, we have the wingers we often pick in the center and are taking benefit of the work rate of the forward in the center and Gameiro with his speed and perfect and unstoppable calls creates spaces with the other players. Technically, he's not good. He can't make good passes, he can't keep the ball for the team block to go higher and is not a good finisher. His signing at PSG puts all his qualities and weaknesses in the light.
this. in fact i'd go further. all he needs to do is run, period. he gets behind defenses like no one else we have. yes but for every glimpse of that you get at least 1' of meaningless possession per match from either of these.
the way you put giroud twice makes me think you hesitated before starting him, and i would too: he and benzema don't scream complementary to me. that said, except for lloris they're the only two i would really expect big performances from. m'vila - he's a good player but no boss in any respect; in a lineup like this he'd have to have mozer genes, and i'm sorry, as belle a plante as he is, down deep he's just a big girl's blouse. he should only play with a real recup beast next to him (which samir is NOT). menez/ribery/nasri - the recommended daily allowance of players like this is half a tablet per match. all three at one time? young man, are you smoking something you shouldn't? do you want help? really man, we care! debuchy/mathieu - they're deservedly third in the pecking order and will stay that way until well after this euro. not that they're bad, but facts is facts is facts. rami/mexes - well, they may indeed be our best CC. why doesn't this make me happy?
So you're going to act like Martin hasn't played badly for the french team whenever he was given a chance to start for the national team, every good game he's had were games where he came in as a substitute. And not to forget that him and his club are having a horrible season. And Martin also plays a more advanced position than Cabaye so if anything you should be comparing him with Nasri (who's been a failure so far for the NT) for who you think should start or be on the bench. And as for the Cabaye/Balmont argument, you've stated nothing that Balmont does better. And also that "mediocre" Newcatle team where Cabaye is their 2nd most important player (behind Ba offcourse) is actually better than Lille is as for as this season is concerned. Picking players based on past games or accomplishements in hopes that they'll magically retrive their form when they step on the pitch works very rarely, it's not often the best idea by coaches. Only recent form for clubs should matter when selecting players for the NT. As for the Menez/Valbuena issue, i don't think any of them will be dropped. I've never been a fan of Valbuena, but i'll admit that as far as this season is concerned (even last season too), Menez hasn't done anything on the pitch for club to deserve a starting spot over Valbuena, it's rather the opposite. The only reason Blanc can chose to start Menez over Valbuena is if he basically prefer his style of play not because he's proved to be better or more decisive. I agree with everything you said about Gameiro though.
i'm a fool in love with flo balmont, he's one of my favorite players, but i'm not sure he has the coffre to do what he does for lille on a bigger stage. i'm not a great fan of marvin martin (what a great name... FCSM had to sign yaya banana to replace him in that department), whose impact in the NT so far makes me nickname him noodlebutt*. valbuena is the opposite of flo balmont. i can't stand him. i don't think he's very good on his own. but where some players make their teammates look good, le petit matthieu has an opposite quality. put him next to niang - he's as good as niang! put him with benzema - he's benzema. if you put him with messi he'd probably be as good as messi! of course play him with kaboré... anyway, i think he is a must take and a must play for this euro. cabaye: i never thought he was that great at lille and has been woeful every minute he's played in bleu. i don't care what he's doing at NUFC. *look up the expression le cul bordé de nouilles
I think Blanc should try a formation similar to that one in the friendly against Germany with the Benzema/Giroud combo starting, so we can atleast see if there's or can be any complimentarity between them. Like i already said in an earlier post concerning that midfield, i think an M'Villa/Cabaye combo could get the job done with Nasri on the right or left wing (or both with him & Ribery often switching positions like he does at city with Silva). What i like about Nasri's game is the fact that he atleast tries to put in a little effort on the defensive end. Yeah like you said, in a formation like that one, using the 3 of Menez/Nasri/Ribery at the same time won't be a very wise idea. As for the Debuchy/Mathieu issue, i personally feel Debuchy is better than Réveillère and should be ahead of him in the pecking order but it seems like Blanc feels otherwise so imo i don't think Débuchy will be included in the squad. As for Mathieu, the fact that he can also play as the left winger is an advantage that shouldn't be under-estimated imo. Based on current form, i'll pick him over Malouda. As for the Rami/Mexes central defense combo, maybe it's because Mexes just came back from injury. But it's true that i'll personally prefer Laurent Blanc to stick with the Abidal/Rami pairing.
This is the way i see him too, his form of the day depends on that of the other key players he's on the pitch with which can be very good or very bad. i don't know about him being a "must" play though...
and i think rvr is better than sagna but whatever difference between any of the three isn't enough to tear down the present hierarchy. but if you had seen the match anto put in this afternoon! since tremouligas didn't feel like playing he took his game ALL OVER THE FIELD and was in on so many good actions... just a great performance.
yeah i watched the match and he played very well. Truthfully every body played well for Lyon, even Gourcuff had a very nice game before he was taken off.
Today: Mathieu had a GREAT game against Barca, Ribery was on fire for Bayern (Player of the Match..by far!!), Gourcuff had a good outing (that lofted flick pass was beautiful!) and Reveillere played great. I liked what was on display today.
And Gomis has been on a tear, 5 goals in the past 5 matches with 18 goals so far this season. He could hit 30 goals in all competitions by the end of it. I also, like Guignol, think that Gomis has what it takes to break into the France squad. His play is getting smarter and more effective with every game, but he especially does well with a strike partner. I think him and Benzema could team up very well, since he's such a good pivot man, but he's also becoming lethal in his own right.
It seems like Blanc doesn't fancy him too much though, but imo if he keeps playing and scoring the way he's doing now, Blanc won't have any other choice than to include him in the squad. I think Blanc's pln is to go with 4 strikers, but with Gomis form, he likely end up picking 5 strikers (knowing that Remy can also play on the right). And out of the 5 strikers (Benzema, Giroud, Remy, Gomis & Gameiro), Gameiro's last in the pecking order imo.
doesn't fancy him? one could almost think he has it in for him. first, think of the press conference where he talked about "bafatémi" with the most disingenuous bad faith bordering on disrespect*. and then when he's finally forced to pick him or lose all credibility (7 goals in 8 matches) he feeds him to the wolves in more ways than one: first playing pivot against an albania with 10 men behind the ball of which 5 (including choirboy lorik cana) were assigned the duty of roughing him up tag-team style (4 biscottes), and then with the score 3-0 pulls him for djibril cissé (who the SdF crowd had been chanting for for 20 minutes) just to rub salt in the wounds. next match, bosnia, bafé's in the stands. don't call us, we'll call you. *beyond mispronouncing his name he said he had only started playing well and regularly when he had in fact been OL player of the month 3 times in 2010/11. what more indication does a player need that his selectionneur could care less about him?
Alain Armand, Mathias Debuchy and Cyril Cissé. and the 11 real reasons of Hoarau selection The author should add also the 11 real reasons of Alou Diarra selection and some excuses for having never selected Toulalan ............ah no, for Toulalan Blanc said that was beacause he was playing as CB at the beginning of 2010/11 season!
blanc has every right to keep picking diarra (or gourcuff before), not like toulalan or gomis, in short have his own reasons for picking his squad. france has 30 million selectionneurs but only one has the responsability, and his word goes for me. what i don't like is the false explanations, the pseudotransparency... in terms of communication i find him much worse than domenech. ray's tongue was wooden, lolo's is oily... and forked.