Ok, may i remind you people that France played yesterday. There is no bit of a thread whatsoever on here, so i might as well start one : Right, i thoroughly liked the match the french displayed yesterday, especially since so many titulars ( among the best ) were absent. Plus winning in Belgium against i must say a pretty good belgium team ( almost made it to euro 04, and were unlucky to lose against Brasil in 02 due to a dodgy ref decision ). My main worry about this team is its defense. It used to be its main asset, but yesterday, i must admit i was scared from time to time. Thuram is inevitable, so is Lizarazu. I can't judge Desailly due to the fact he doesn't play in Chelsea. My main worry is Gallas and Sylvestre. I don't know about you, but Gallas made rookie mistakes sometimes, and does viera have to run purposly into apponents in order to get the ball back. Had this been a euro match, and not been an english ref, he would have been carded just as makelele. We can't afford to have that happen. Despite that, good match in the middle and in attack. Luyindula made a good impression on me also.
It's a bit difficult for me to judge as I didn't see the game, only followed RMC's audio broadcast, but...From what I heard: _agreed about Thuram, but not as center back, only as left back. That's what he is really good at. Seems he was "rusty", made quite a few mistakes. _agreed about Lizarazu, still the best right back we have. _agreed about Gallas/Sylvestre...although Sylvestre would be, IMO, the most likely to "earn" a starter place between them. _what about Mexes? Shouldn't he get more playing time? _seems Desailly had a pretty solid game. _Viera/Makelele: lack of concentration/motivation in that game, maybe? _agreed about Luyindula, sounded like he worked hard. _what about Saha? How did he look to you? He was responsible for the 1rst goal and managed to slot Zidane's pass home for the 2sd. Not bad at all for a first game with that team as well. Good to see these 2 (Saha/Luyindula) seemingly "fitting" right in that quick! _Marlet: no thank's. But yes, overall, the defence will be the area of trouble, for now. Oh well, we used to not have strikers (98), now we do. Let's see how things go without defence, now
Saha looked quite good actually, not impressed at all by the fact that he was wearing the blue jersey, unlike Rothen for exemple. As for the defense, what you say is true. We used to have not an attack, now it's a defence we're looking for, even tho, and that's what's the strangest of all, we haven't conceded a goal in 678 minutes= more than 12 matches. But it's true that the teams we met weren't that great, plus a bit of luck against germany and Belgium helped us keep our nets "clean". Still i wonder, having a great defense is better than having a great attack. What's the point in scoring 3 goals if we get 4 ( i'm pushing it on purpose ). We proved in 98 we could win the greatest trophy on almost only defense ( blanc and thuram scoring in crucial times, and our defense holding together againt Italy ), but i don't think we'll win again in 2004 playing like that. Italy and the czech Republic are looking strong. Well friendlies are only friendlies anyway.
I guess you mean Liza as a left back and thuram as right back... Also I don't think there is a real issue about the defence, I mean we didn't concede a goal in 12 games or so... Obviously we didn't play against top class team but we still have 7/8 players who could make a good defence. Overall the game wasn't brillant but with zidane in the team anything can happen. Hope we'll play better against netherlands next month
Oops! Yes, that's what I meant. I must be turning dyslexic with age... And about the defence, well, it could be an issue with stronger teams, against which mistakes are costly. But it isn't the end of the world, no, we still have capable players at these positions. We'll only really find out in competition ( and before that, Holland/Brasil friendlies will give more clues)