Three of the world’s five most expensive players are liable to line up for France on Saturday as they open their World Cup 2018 campaign with a fixture against Australia.
Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Paul Pogba may cost a combined fee of over £300 million, but there are pre-tournament nerves are rife in their homeland.
The opening hurdle is expected to be a formality for Didier Deschamps’ side, who are expected to qualify from Group C with some to spare. Denmark and Peru both come into the tournament with long unbeaten runs behind them, but they should not offer an elimination threat to the Euro 2016 finalists on paper.
Nevertheless, Saturday’s game is important to set the tone.
As World Cup-winning attacker Christophe Dugarry told L’Equipe on Friday:
“A defeat to begin with, or a draw playing badly destroys the atmosphere and the confidence in the squad. They must win the opener at all costs. It’s the most important of the group games.”
Frank Leboeuf went further:
“A draw is unimaginable. A draw or a loss, it’s practically the end of the competition.”
No pressure, then.
While France have accepted the tag as one of the tournament favourites, it is one that they have pawed at only tentatively. They are aware that they should be there on paper, but conscious that reality paints a different story.
The problem? Les Bleus have almost too much talent at their disposal and there are serious questions as to whether head coach Deschamps knows what to do with it.
Speaking after France defeated Italy 3-1 in a pre-tournament friendly match in Nice, Griezmann noted:
“We’re on the right track, we won, but we’ve still got lots of things to work on and to learn.
“We must find the right tactics, the best system for the team. The coach is considering what must be his tactics for the first match at the World Cup.”
It was a quite staggering admission from one of the team’s outstanding players. In essence, he admitted that on the eve of the biggest tournament in four years, his coach was yet to formulate a definitive plan for France’s assault on the title.
The Atletico Madrid attacker was simply reiterating what the French public were already aware of. Deschamps has flirted with a variety of formations and styles, but going to Russia, there is still uncertainty over how they will play.
For the opening game, it seems that he will settle on a 4-3-1-2 formation, offering a diamond midfield that has N’Golo Kante at its base and Antoine Griezmann at its point.
Surprisingly, however, there is unlikely to be a place for Olivier Giroud. At times a maligned figure in England, the Chelsea striker has been a keystone for his nation perhaps more than any other player. A head knock in the final friendly match against the USA has not helped his cause, but if he were to be omitted, it would be a risky move from the coach, who would put his entire faith in a technical, quick but inexperienced front line of Mbappe and Dembele.
Deschamps is certainly not afraid to gamble with the young players his country are bringing through. This will be France’s youngest World Cup squad since 1930 and the expected line up for Saturday’s game is a mere 24, a figure inflated significantly by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, the old man of the team at 31.
It will be some achievement if such a green squad can adapt to a system that has not been drilled into them and which few of them use at domestic level.
There is, however, no dearth of quality. All hail from Europe’s top clubs but while there is no denial of France’s abilities on an individual level, they have yet to prove it on a collective basis.
Performances have been notoriously erratic under Deschamps. Their whole qualifying campaign was complicated last September by a bizarre meltdown against Sweden, as they frittered away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 amid a fit of immaturity, which was again evident as they lost at home to Colombia in the spring.
And if fans had thought those creases would be ironed out by now, there was the 1-1 draw against a severely understrength USA side in Lyon before leaving for Russia.
It is a result that has planted fresh doubts into the mind of the public and the performance cannot have been inspirational for fans either.
Perhaps the influence of an outstanding on-field leader would be able to bring the team together, but they are without a natural focal point in this regard. Lloris commands the role of captain, but there are doubts in his homeland as to whether he offers the gravitas required for the role.
If everything falls into place, France are a side capable of going all the way. They are, however, wary that international football is not decided by reputation and transfer fees alone.
