What if I told you that France were better without Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, Mike Maignan, Christopher Nkunku, Presnel Kimpembe, and Lucas Hernandez?
Well, as LeVar Burton loved to say, you don’t have to take my word for it. The 2022 FIFA World Cup has put that sentiment on full display.
The defending champions were beset by a ruthless run of injuries prior to the start of the tournament that left many — myself included — doubting their abilities to compete amongst the world’s greats in Qatar. Repeating as World Cup champions was a tough enough feat on its own, as no team has accomplished that task since 1962, but without some of their best players?
Losing Benzema alone, a world-class goalscorer who is coming off winning the Ballon d’Or, left many thinking the task was too great for Les Bleus. Kante is maybe the world’s best midfield destroyer, even with his powers beginning to diminish. Pogba is in a class of his own talent-wise and was critical in 2018 despite poor club form. Maignan had slowly, quietly, become a top-10 goalkeeper in the world, forcing his way into the squad with brilliant play at AC Milan. Nkunku was in great goalscoring form of his own and even more important after Benzema went down.
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How could a national team, even one of the deepest in the world, weather an injury crisis like that? Yet France have not only weathered the storm, they’ve become one themselves, an unstoppable force of attacking pressure that has somehow looked even better than before.
Yes, I said it. Better. Better than with the Ballon d’Or winner (who may yet return for the final, by the way), better than with the best defensive midfielder in the world, better than with a brilliant ball from deep, better without the top goalkeeper in the entire Italian top flight. How?
Didier Deschamps, now on the precipice of World Cup immortality, has pulled off a managerial masterclass, making all the right moves to not just cover up the losses with a temporary bandage, but displaying utter genius in making this France side something nobody thought possible: better than they were before.
2 – Didier Deschamps is the fourth manager to lead a nation to back-to-back World Cup finals, after Vittorio Pozzo with Italy (1934, 1938), Carlos Bilardo with Argentina (1986, 1990), and Franz Beckenbauer with Germany (1986, 1990). Midas. pic.twitter.com/eauFEetYM4
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 14, 2022
Olivier Giroud: France’s target man replaces Ballon d’Or winner
Nobody in the world was better last club season than Karim Benzema. Nobody. Just ask the 100 journalists who voted for the 2021/22 Ballon d’Or, given out by France Football to the Real Madrid striker after leading Los Blancos to a La Liga and Champions League double.
Meanwhile, 36-year-old Olivier Giroud, who has five goals in 13 Serie A appearances, wasn’t even supposed to be in the France squad. Reports over the past few weeks suggested Didier Deschamps didn’t even want to take the aging striker to Qatar altogether. Giroud, after all, was only even seeing the field at his club thanks to the continued recovery of Zlatan Ibrahimovic from a torn ACL.
Then both Benzema and Christopher Nkunku went down, and he didn’t have much of a choice. He’ll be thanking his lucky stars. While the two individuals represent completely different styles of play, one suits this France side much better.
This France team flat-out plays better up front with Giroud in the side. The veteran has reinvented the attack to help focus on hold-up play before deploying his characteristic eye for goal in the final third.
Consider this: in the 1-0 defeat to Croatia in the Nations League this summer, Benzema started up front for France. He had 43 touches in the match as France dominated possession, but they worked exclusively in the half-court, trying to break down Croatia’s organized defense to no avail. Kylian Mbappe had a whopping 72 touches, but he failed to complete more than half his 10 attempted dribbles and was stymied. Benzema often clogged things up, drifting out wide left into Mbappe’s area of the pitch.
Against Morocco in the World Cup semifinals, it was a completely different story with Giroud up front. The former Arsenal and Chelsea forward had only 25 touches, and Mbappe only 37 as Morocco attempted to play defense by overwhelming the France midfield and maintaining possession. That only played to France’s strengths, as they repeated the same plan of attack every time: lump the ball to Giroud, let him spring Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele down the flanks at breakneck speed, and give them full-back help on the overlap. It worked to perfection: Mbappe’s pacey counter-attacks helped open things up for left-back Theo Hernandez, who was still able to track back to win all six of his ground duels defensively.
Clearly, with Giroud, less is so much more, and at the end of the day, despite just half the touches of Benzema in that gruesome home defeat to Croatia, Giroud managed to fire off three shots to Benzema’s one and hitting the post with one effort, as well as opening up space with his pinpoint off-ball runs.
Utilizing a target man who provides an outlet in hold-up play, France can absorb pressure and then relieve it by simply sending the ball to Giroud who springs the counter, putting Mbappe in a position to succeed. None of this would be possible with the preferred attacking lineup coming into the tournament, which surely featured a healthy Benzema in that spot. And of course, Giroud played all seven games as France won the World Cup four years ago — his usefulness shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
2.09 – France’s Expected Goals (xG) total was twice that of opponents Morocco (0.95), despite both teams having the same number of shots on target in the match (3) and with France only attempting one more shot overall (14 v 13). Stats. pic.twitter.com/Qnmw3l32Qr
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) December 14, 2022
Antoine Griezmann in the No. 8 midfield role
Coming into the 2022 World Cup, there was little debate what the France midfield would look like if everyone was fit to participate. N’Golo Kante, a former Ballon d’Or candidate and the finest defensive midfielder for much of the past six years, would anchor the spot, with Paul Pogba next to him. That would allow peak tactical flexibility for Didier Deschamps, who could either deploy a three-at-the-back defensive shape with bombing wing-backs, a third midfielder in a traditional 4-3-3 system, or use Antoine Griezmann as a No. 10 behind a central striker and two wingers.
None of that would come to pass. Neither Kante nor Pogba were available as their careers came to a screeching halt thanks to long-term fitness issues. That left Deschamps picking at scraps in midfield amidst a squad that included young Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga joined by Adrien Rabiot, Matteo Guendouzi, and Jordan Veretout.
Enter Griezmann, a France star who too often flies under the radar outside his home country. The 31-year-old had appeared in an astonishing 67 straight matches for the French national team entering the World Cup, and Deschamps asked him to change things up. Instead of his usual No. 10 or “second striker” role, Griezmann would be deployed as a traditional No. 8 and tasked with both chance creation and defensive duties.
In maybe the single biggest tactical masterstroke of the entire 2022 World Cup. It worked to utter perfection.
🤩 Another 10/10 display from Antoine Griezmann earns him tonight’s @Budweiser Player of the Match. In with a chance at the #FIFAWorldCup Golden Ball surely?#FRAMAR #POTM #YoursToTake #BringHomeTheBud @budfootball pic.twitter.com/ten0VGJ5Q7
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 14, 2022
Griezmann has not only been the most creative player at the World Cup by a country mile, but he has also maintained his defensive awareness to a high level, no doubt prepared by the rigid organizational mindset of his club coach Diego Simeone. Griezmann has created 21 chances at this World Cup, three more than anyone else, and has collected 3.51 expected assists (xA), nearly double any other player in the tournament.
He’s done all that while still performing admirably in the defensive end, winning eight tackles and making seven interceptions, both joint-second on the team. He’s won 26 duels overall, joint-third in the French side, and his 142 completed passes in the opposition half are second only to midfield anchor Tchouameni.
If it weren’t for the star power of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, Griezmann may very well be the frontrunner for the Golden Ball award presented to the best player at the World Cup.
Theo Hernandez steps in admirably for stricken brother Lucas
Another unsung hero of this France side is Theo Hernandez, who faced maybe the biggest emotional contradiction when he stepped onto the field in the opening match against Australia. His brother, Lucas, the regular starter at left-back for France, had very clearly just shredded his knee in a non-contact injury, and a torn ACL would soon be confirmed.
In stepped the younger sibling, and away he flew. On the left flank teaming up with Kylian Mbappe, the 25-year-old AC Milan full-back has been sensational. He has won 11 tackles, the most on the France squad and fourth-most in the World Cup, with only 13 attempts, far fewer than any of the three individuals above him on the list. Of anyone at the tournament with at least seven completed tackles, his 11 chances created are second only to the aforementioned Golden Ball candidate Griezmann.
Theo’s goal against Morocco, a wonderful finish born of ingenuity and improvisation, opened the scoring early and provided France with a level of comfort in an otherwise nervy match as they protected an early lead rather than chasing a goal against a defensively sound side.
4:39 – Theo Hernández’s opener is the earliest scored by any side in a World Cup semi-final since 1958, when Vavá scored within two minutes for Brazil against France. Front-foot. pic.twitter.com/f4yNzxQFM1
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 14, 2022
Deschamps had little time to contrive a plan of attack for Theo, as his introduction came on the fly rather than in any kind of pre-tournament buildup, and yet he too has flourished.
Didier Deschamps on the brink of World Cup history
International managers quite rarely become the household sensations of their club counterparts. Didier Deschamps and his fellow national team bosses in Qatar will likely never reach the celebrity status of coaches like Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, or Jose Mourinho.
In fact, Deschamps was talked about four years ago as a man who held France back with negative tactics, a head man whom Les Bleus lifted the World Cup trophy in spite of, not because of. Yet despite that somewhat baffling lack of popularity, Deschamps is on the brink of achieving a feat so extraordinary that only one man in history has come even remotely close, and it has been nearly a century since.
Should he defeat Lionel Messi and Argentina in the World Cup final, the Frenchman would become the first coach to win two men’s World Cup titles since Vittorio Pozzo did it in 1934 and 1938 with Italy. It’s a feat few managers even get to attempt, let alone accomplish.
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Yet Deschamps is on the brink of that football rarity, despite all the adversity handed to him prior to the tournament. Sure, the talent pool in France rivals any top nation around the globe, which certainly helps bandage over any injury wave. Still, Deschamps has done more than just piece together a rickety tower with duct tape; he has instead fused together a World Cup final participant that is both pleasing to the viewer’s eye and lionhearted on the pitch.
Admittedly, as France hung on late against Morocco with the opposition pouring on pressure, it was hard not to wonder how much safer things would have felt with N’Golo Kante standing guard in midfield, countering the overwhelming presence of Sofyan Amrabat and Azzedine Ounahi.
Still, we haven’t even discussed Hugo Lloris’s renaissance in the face of Mike Maignan’s absence, or Ibrahima Konate’s spectacular performance against Morocco with Dayot Upamecano injured, or the surprising resilience of Adrien Rabiot in midfield, or the late contributions up front of Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram while Christopher Nkunku watches on.
Whether or not this France squad achieves World Cup immortality on Sunday in Qatar, the job Deschamps has done to lead the Bleus cavalry into a second consecutive final should not be forgotten, for it is one of the most impressive displays of managerial ingenuity and perseverance this great tournament has witnessed in its illustrious history.
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