Just curious, who exactly was on the French team that attempted to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. I believe Houllier was the coach, and the team featured some players like Lama, Ginola, Cantona, and Papin. Who else was on the team? There were some survivors from the 1986 team, right? Thanks for your help.
GK: Bernard Lama, Bruno Martini Defenders: Basile Boli, Jocelyn Angloma, Marcel Desailly, Laurent Blanc, Alain Roche, Paul Le Guen, Eric Di Meco(?) Midfielders : Franck Sauzée, Vincent Guérin, Didier Deschamps, Emmanuel Petit, Reynald Pedros, Corentin Martins Strikers : JP Papin, Eric Cantona, David Ginola There was no survivor from the 1986 team (except Papin but he was very young in 86). The last players from Platini's generation (Luis Fernandez and Manuel Amoros) retired after EC92 if I remember. That team lacked some experience and cohesion despite some great players and a potentially devastating attack (JPP, Cantona, Ginola). There was no leader on the field and no one was able to drive the game. Great strikers, sh!t playmaker... Notice that the WC98 team was the exact opposite -sh!t strikers, great playmaker (Zidane).
I still have to say that that was a pretty good team. That's the great thing about the 98 team. They didn't need the great strikers to score. Every game was a team effort. And if you get a defender like Desailly to score two goals in a game, who needs strikers?