Flamini Rapelle

[Fonsos]

Today's L'Equipe (http://foot2008.lequipe.fr/breves2008/20080602_111110_flamini-en-renfort_Dev.html)

A+,
Fonsos

[guignol]

just beat me to it fonsos! for the moment he's only been invited to be present at clairefontaine, no change to the 23 has been made yet, but where's there's smoke on generally finds fire eventually.

[Fonsos]

According the latest update on L'Equipe, Vieira will resign from the team this afternoon.

A+,
Fonsos

[Catel]

What a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad news if Vieira quits.

[lefutur]

I feel that this Euro wont be won by the French but will be an excellent preparation for the WC in 2010. The young players such as Nasri, Benzema, Diarra, Toulalan,and now Flamini, will be at the top of their game come 2010 and will have an excellent chance of going all the way.

[AfrcnHrbMan]

I feel we have just a good a chance as any of the other favorites of lifting the trophy. I'm assuming that this move is to replace Vieira. That's sad, but other than his leadership role, I don't think it will be that huge of a blow. Toulalan is ready. I really doubt he will be involved in 2010 this was gonna be his last hurrah. Flamini is great too, but even if he replaces Pat, I doubt he sees the field, barring more injury.

[guignol]

toulalan and kéké are going to do a GREAT job together, they already have every attacking midfielder in the tournament wringing their hands. but neither of them can provide the forward punch that pat did, it's not their thing. it's flamini's thing, but you can't compare; he's not the answer.

so what is the answer? we already got a glimpse against paraguay, and it will be confirmed tonight: TWO attackers (this time the die is cast, there will be no change come romania like we saw in 2006), ribery of course, and malouda, who will come more and more to the middle. and if he doesn't cut the mustard tonight, then govou on the left. he may not be a n°10, but he'll be wearing it!

[lefutur]

France will have even MORE problems scoring without Vieira than they did before. France needs Nasri in this tournament. I see a lot of 0-0 draws in the works otherwise.

[Fonsos]

France will have even MORE problems scoring without Vieira than they did before. France needs Nasri in this tournament. I see a lot of 0-0 draws in the works otherwise.

EH??? How do you figure? Hell, France's biggest problem in regards to scoring in my opinion is not keeping it simple around the goal area. See the Ecuador and Paraguay matches. See the Euro qualifier matches. There are times when you should just shoot and France tends to add to much flare instead of just shooting. I think France will have a good tournament.

Fonsos

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Wow, again, it appears I have to agree with lefutur. Fonsos, I think that our point is that Nasri, as we saw in the match before this one, isn't afraid to shoot, whereas if there are 2 defensive midfielders aligned, say the classic Vieira-Maké combination, those guys have little clue what to do with the ball in the offensive half, whereas a Malouda-Nasri-Ribéry attacking midfield would.

Given the 23 players called up, I actually think

Henry - Benzema
Malouda - Nasri - Ribéry
Vieira
Evra - Abidal - Gallas - Sagnol
Frey


would be our best lineup, though that's me.

[lefutur]

Wow, again, it appears I have to agree with lefutur. Fonsos, I think that our point is that Nasri, as we saw in the match before this one, isn't afraid to shoot, whereas if there are 2 defensive midfielders aligned, say the classic Vieira-Maké combination, those guys have little clue what to do with the ball in the offensive half, whereas a Malouda-Nasri-Ribéry attacking midfield would.

Given the 23 players called up, I actually think

Henry - Benzema
Malouda - Nasri - Ribéry
Vieira
Evra - Abidal - Gallas - Sagnol
Frey


would be our best lineup, though that's me.

I like that lineup a lot.

[guignol]

EH??? How do you figure? Hell, France's biggest problem in regards to scoring in my opinion is not keeping it simple around the goal area. See the Ecuador and Paraguay matches. See the Euro qualifier matches. There are times when you should just shoot and France tends to add to much flare instead of just shooting.exactly what we saw last night.

Wow, again, it appears I have to agree with lefutur. Fonsos, I think that our point is that Nasri, as we saw in the match before this one, isn't afraid to shoot, whereas if there are 2 defensive midfielders aligned, say the classic Vieira-Maké combination, those guys have little clue what to do with the ball in the offensive half, whereas a Malouda-Nasri-Ribéry attacking midfield would.

Given the 23 players called up, I actually think

Henry - Benzema
Malouda - Nasri - Ribéry
Vieira
Evra - Abidal - Gallas - Sagnol
Frey


would be our best lineup, though that's me.by "vieira" who's out i assume you mean makelele or toulalan... but we will absolutely see both, and with good reason. when you have players of that caliber, you have to find a way of getting them both on the pitch. considering how good they've been in these prep matches, perhaps vieira's forfeit is immaterial.

but Ray will get them onto the pitch in the formation you indicate; only the names change:

Henry - Benzema
Malouda - Ribéry - Toualalan
Makelele
Abidal - Gallas - Thuram - Sagnol
Coupet


obviously toulalan and malouda aren't exactly mirror images, but jeremy will be expected to be more offensive (we even saw him cross over sagnol last night, in both senses of the term) and flo will have to shoulder some defensive duties.

one result is that these two will start putting pressure on opposing ball carriers very high up the field. another is that since they will both be expected to go all the way to the center france will dominate the axe, including offensively if last night is any indication. find the last time 40-50% of our offense went up the middle.

those are the good things. the downside is that the wings might be vulnerable, and if the two players we're analyzing have to go wide the team will get cut in two, with a proper sahara between ribéry and makelele. luckily they've got 6 (well, 5.5) lungs between them.

ad hominem

as per SuperSeb's lineup, besides the vieira thing i can't see giving that kind of responsability to nasri when he's been hit or miss at OM this year, nor the utility of having both ribéry and him on the field together. we'd get steamrolled. evra at left with abidal in the middle is an idea with much merit, but it would be at gallas' expense, not tutu's. and what looked good after ecuador looks very shaky based on all three matches. as for frey, well everyone has a right to a harmless little marotte. ;)

domenech's lineup looks very good to me. a coach can only do so much: test all the likely candidates, see which are in form and find a way to play the best 11 together in a rational system. if henry's game goes south next week, benzema bottles, or makelele or thuram prove to be washed up as many say, it won't be ray's fault, everything we've seen these last couple of weeks supports his position. the only thing he could be faulted for is if someone knackers ribéry for us it would be better to have ben arfa than not. the only questions i (and perhaps he) might have are:

who really should play left back? so far he's flipped the coin three times, it's come up abidal twice and evra once.

same question between clerc and sagnol.

finally, in the position malouda will be asked to play, wouldn't govou be better? he looked monstrous in the 45 minutes he got in these three matches, gets stuck in better than malouda, and then there really are 6 lungs between ribéry and makelele.

[lefutur]

besides the vieira thing i can't see giving that kind of responsability to nasri when he's been hit or miss at OM this year, nor the utility of having both ribéry and him on the field together. we'd get steamrolled.

"we'd get steamrolled"

based on what evidence? this obsession with defense is really starting to annoy me. does anyone know how many goals France has conceded in the past year? If memory serves it was like 0.000001 per game or something like that.

why can't France take some defensive risks and try to score some goals?

[guignol]

le parisien (yes, i know...) has announced that big pat has passed aphysical and is going to austria after all, but will still miss romania.

http://news.maxifoot.com/info-079467_80605/football-212659951482328a2.php

[lefutur]

le parisien (yes, i know...) has announced that big pat has passed aphysical and is going to austria after all, but will still miss romania.

http://news.maxifoot.com/info-079467_80605/football-212659951482328a2.php

thats great news

[AfrcnHrbMan]

It's great news, as long as he's going to be 100% by Holland. We don't need an half fit Vieira out there. Need I remind everyone what happened in 2002 when we rolled Zidane out there despite his hobbling injury.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

It appears increasingly likely that Pat will appear in the tournament. Let's hope he plays a total of 6 games (assuming he's out tomorrow). :D