FOOTBALL – New blood in sight. After a pitiful performance against Italy, Didier Deschamps’ French team must show a different face at all costs this Monday, September 9 for its second Nations League match against Belgium. A reconquest operation that will involve an unprecedented captaincy in the starting eleven.
Griezmann reassuring on his relationship with Deschamps before the match against Belgium
Beaten 3-1 on Friday evening, the players of the French team discovered the team composition to face the Red Devils, with several absences of size which oblige the French coach to appoint a new captain for this meeting. Without Kylian Mbappé starting, nor Antoine Griezmann, his second in the hierarchy of the French captaincy, Didier Deschamps made a strong choice by appointing N’Golo Kanté as captain, a first at kick-off.
An unprecedented choice for the Al-Ittihad player, but relatively logical and in line with the choices made by Didier Deschamps at the head of the French team, who has long relied on his historic goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to occupy this position with the Blues. Despite his relative poor form against Italy, the 2018 world champion remains one of the pillars of the French team (62 selections tonight), especially after his unexpected and more than valuable return to the French squad for Euro-2024.
The 33-year-old also has a good popularity rating within the squad and is constantly praised for his human qualities, as well as his simplicity. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to impose himself in this new role in the space of 90 minutes, or even less, he who is also known for his natural shyness.
Blower in the locker room
Despite this sensible decision, the big loser of this choice by Didier Deschamps is called Mike Maignan. Because by doing without Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann, it seemed quite logical to name the AC Milan goalkeeper as interim captain of this French team.
As explained above, Didier Deschamps has long counted on Hugo Lloris in this position, despite a choice that has often been debated. The fault lies in the unfavorable positioning of the goalkeeper on a football field and the personality of Hugo Lloris, far from being the most vocal player in Didier Deschamps’ previous teams. In appearance at least.
Appointing Mike Maignan also seemed logical, because it allowed capitalizing on the experience of the French goalkeeper, among the oldest players in the group called up for these two Nations League matches. Not to mention Mike Maignan’s blow to his teammates just after the defeat against Italy.
According to the newspaper’s indiscretions The Teamthe French goalkeeper was so angry with his teammates’ performance on Friday evening, but especially with certain attitudes, that he delivered a monologue castigating a ” starlet behavior ” among some players as soon as they returned to the locker room. Let’s hope that his words were enough to get the whole group back on track for this remake of the round of 16 of Euro 2024.
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