FRANCE vs ISRAEL, boy they miss zidane!

[JUVENTUS_21]

The game ended 0-0 with Henry missing a million headers (although he seemed to be the best on the field).
Domench is the worst coach ever, if it wasn't for him france could have won this by atleast 4 goals. The way he organized the players, it was so bad. He moved mendy and evra up to play as wingers, put three defenders back, viera and makelele in the middle, rothen in the centre behind henry & saha . This was pobably the worst use of france's talent.
First, of all rothen is the best left winger france has and he should have played him as a left winger!
Secondly, he brought in giuly as a right winger in the second half this is pobably the worst use for him, deschamps moved him in the centre behind the strikers where his at his best, and thats where he should play
Third, cisse is better than saha they should have played him
Fourth, makelele should have been replaced with pedretti, because his a playmaker and makele is pretty much useless

Pretty much the formation should have been

-------------------coupet---------------------

------Mendy---Squillaci---givet---evra----------

---------pedretti-----viera----rothen-----------

-------------------- Guily ---------------------

-----------------cisse----henry-----------------

[Rima067]

Why didn't he start w/ Pires? And even Cisse, I don't understand. This is a match where he needed more experienced players..


Really, why Saha over Cisse?

[gaijin]

How do I describe a game like that?

erm..........

............poor......

That was a dire game....

I thought that they missed Trezguet up front. Henry and Saha are just too similar front men for me.

They seriously did lack Zizou. The midfield was barren, even Vieira had a poor game....

Nothing positive I can say about that - lets hope they can perform better against Ireland and Suisse.... :(

[Rima067]

I too believe they missed Trezeguet. Especially for the headers. Trez would have gotten all of thiose in.

Actually, funny that Henry squandered those chances because just last night I was rewatching the France v Senegal WC02 match and Henry squandered headers there also! I was telling my sister all about it, how when he has scored from headers he had only needed to pop them in, he didn't have to work them. But, I don't really expect Henry to score w/ headers, I believe that is what Trezeguet's for and one of the reasons why they complement each other well.


Moe and more,I sometimes wonder about Makalele. In the Euro's and now, he doesn't always play when called. He's seems to get nervous and sometimes is useless. But, he does have the experience and of himself and Dacourt I would choose him.. but... they had Pedretti.

[gaijin]

Hey, Thierry scored with a header last week against Norwich...... :)

[mad theory]

I bet you if Wenger was NT coach, Henry would be on fire. Wenger gets the best out of his players and Henry needs to play in a particular formation, otherwise he's useless. Arsenal's built around him, France isn't.

[gaijin]

I bet you if Wenger was NT coach, Henry would be on fire. Wenger gets the best out of his players and Henry needs to play in a particular formation, otherwise he's useless. Arsenal's built around him, France isn't.

totally agree with you...Henry was like a target man not a quick striker who bursts from the wing and dribbles past players....

[bergkamp10]

Pretty much the formation should have been

-------------------coupet---------------------

------Mendy---Squillaci---givet---evra----------

---------pedretti-----viera----rothen-----------

-------------------- Guily ---------------------

-----------------cisse----henry-----------------

Pires should have started. When the heck will Hatem Ben Arfa get his chance? Who cares if he's young. France appears to be in need of an injection of youthful enthusiasm. Oh and what about Steed Malbranque?

[Teso Dos Bichos]

You are being a tad harsh guys. You will need to give it a few games when everyone is available in order to find your starting XI. Too many players have retired recently. Give him a few games to experiment and if France are still poor, then let the abuse flow!

[Rima067]

But the unanswerable problems are, well, one, is why he didn't play Pires, especially. But, of course, it will take a few games to see, but, we should remember is all it takes is a few games to not qualify for the World Cup.

[Galiano-Mag10]

ok ok ok! lets not be so harsh, yes it was a terrible game, raymond is a terrible coach, but he's new we need to have patience, also most of the french players have no confidence after losing the euro2004 especially against greece, give france some time and hopefully they'll get back on there feet. i also wanna point out that Israel played one of their best defence and played a good game, in conclusion i wanna say that france needs some time and they'll be back to being amazing, but if they don't do it now then its never cause the loss of zidane was a major problem for france

[lefutur]

Didnt see the game but saw some highlights on TV. Seems like they got some good scoring chances but didnt catch a break. Probably could have easily been a 2-0 game.

Regardless, I think its unrealistic to have such a radically new side and expect them to gel immediately. Also Im surprised that so many people are criticizing the coach already when its clear that he wants to experiment with new formations and new players. He seems to have alot of respect from the French football organisation. personally I dont know much about him but I think I want to give him a chance to try new approaches before writing him off as a failure.