Doms: There were some less good moments

Pretty cold, dude. I can sense you’re down on Doms. Everybody’s feeling, especially in France. It’s bad there. They don’t even like to think about the national team. They’re into the Champions League. If some of the France players could turn up for the national team.

Look at the number of France players on teams in the last 8. Quality. Evra. Clichy. Gallas, when fit. Sagna. Abidal? Henry? Nasri. Diaby. Gourcuff. Lloris. Alou Diarra. Ribery. Others.

This is the first time I really expect nothing from Les Bleus, coach really blows but so does the federation plus I think for the country who is known for it’s revolution the French players have no guts, I would as a captain get all the players together and say WE WILL NOT PLAY FOR DOMENECH I assure you France would have a new coach, instead we are going to play Tunisia, Costa Rica and China why not Andora,Linchestein,and the Fiji Island 4 sure we will win, you want a team that can win the world cup, here it is

COACH (anyone but the current idiot)

Llioris
Sagna
Gallas
Cianni
Evra
L Diarra
Diabi
Ribery
Gorcuff
Nasri
Anelka

Toulalan and Henry sorry guys not up to good enough

Hi, I am from India and a huge supporter of the French football team. The team is very good with some very talented players but I don’t think that Raymond Domenech is capable enough to guide the team to victory. Someone said something about bringing in Arsene Wenger, I think he is the best man to do the job. He or maybe Jose Mourinho. But Wenger is familiar with many of the French players. IMO France’ main competition will be against England, Holland and Spain. England end up screwing up all the time and I am not expecting any change this time but still they are a threat. If van Persie returns, the Netherlands might become unstoppable seeing their speed and classy strikers but their defense is one big problem. I don’t want to talk about Spain, they are just too good with world class players at every position.

I think team France is still used to Zidane. I don’t get to watch Lyon much but they have done really well in this year’s UEFA Champions League so I am assuming Hugo Lloris to be a decent player. France has some great players in the defense zone. Sagna, Gallas, Mexes and Evra should start according to me. Clichy or Abidal can start on bench. I would go with 4-1-2-1-2 formation. L Diara, Malouda, Ribery and Nasri to start, with Diaby, Gourcuff on bench. Benzema and Anelka as starting strikers with Henry on bench.

Malouda, Nasri, Anelka and Diaby are in very good form in the EPL. \Les Bleus/

What strikes me is how tight the team always looks and how they never play with anything that looks like joy or verve. I think that tone is set at the top and trickles down throughout the team. It’s like they take no pleasure from being a team or from playing together. Hard to believe with all that talent too!

There is no leader in the team. Not on it and definitely not off it.

I think if France can make it into knockout stages they will be dangerous. Once that team chemistry develops between players (regardless of Dom tactics) they are capable players to knock better teams off the perch.

Apoorva – I see you’re an Arsenal supporter. There are a few of us on here.

I could Sagna playing central defense, with Eboue at right back.

I’m not a big Mexes fan, but you’ll find them on here. I’m not a big Abidal fan either, but I’d pick him at central defense with a healthy William Gallas. The other possibilities include Squillaci, Escude, and Ciani. Anyone remember when Gael Givet played central defense for France?

Arsene Wenger doesn’t want the job, and we wouldn’t want Mourinho.

I think you’re right about England.

The France formation is a 4-2-3-1. People moan about it a lot. They moan about the two holding midfielders. “Two holding midfielders shouldn’t be necessary against the Faroe Islands,” they moan. 7 of the 11 players are focused on defending, usually leaving:

Henry (Down the pecking order at Barcelona, but Domenech still sees him as first-11 material at International level.)

Anelka (Scored 19 goals in the league, last season.)

Ribery (Coming back from injury. Our best hope.)

Gourcuff.

Lloris is pretty decent. I like him. He played well against Ireland. We went into that game hearing that we’re miles ahead except at keeper. Lloris was maybe our best player.

Streets, there are actually 20 French players left in the last 8 of the CL. That’s pretty amazing, no other country even comes close. Brazil is 2nd, with 9 players. There simply is no excuse for the national team to be in the state that it’s in. France is by far Europe’s finest incubator, developer and exporter of talent. There are 3 French managers left in the last 8 of the CL — no other country has achieved that.

And ditto to Scott’s excellent post.

This is the problem:

Yes, some of the players are clearly not playing for Dom, but there’s no leader and no clear revolution.

Regarding the friendly vs. Spain:

Djibril Cisse tried his best with very limited time. Gourcuff looked like he gave up after trying hard for 20 minutes.

Ribery looked like a dangerous beast, but only had a handful of threatening runs.

Escude and Evra basically played like dog poo. If this is their way of rebelling and demanding not to play for Les Bleus, I’d kick them off the squad right away.

They play so good for club, but fail to show up for country? I detest those kinds of players, and Dom should let Patrice and Escude ride the pine for a while until they shape up..

Lloris is solid, and I hope all the Sebastien Frey apologists start to go away once they see that Hugo is spider-man and Sea-Bass-Frey has been eating too much pasta. No to Frey. yes to Lloris. Lloris is younger, faster, and has better vision and reaction time. Yes, once in a while he has a bad game (OM 5-5 OL) but usually the guy is solid. I’ve seen Frey play for his pathetic Serie A club, and he does not impress.

If a leader emerges between now and the WC, that would be great.

Of course Aditya is correct in stating that team chemistry can happen IF we make it to the knock-out stages.

It’s the very dangerous road to the knock-out stages that worries me.

If we gave Cissoko a chance to play against Spain, then we could have had an idea how he stacks up against top-level competition. But since Dom kept Mr. Manchester United at left back, we only had a look at him.

First off, everyone knows Evra can play. People gave me crap for calling him out in the match vs. Spain. My question is, knowing how good he is for club, can he show up for country when push comes to shove? The friendly says “no”, and now we didn’t get a look at Cissoko.. Ugh… Raymond!!

Hopefully, Ray will consult his astrologue and star charts and realize that he needs a Lion/Poisson/or Capricorn to play left back. Who knows how he makes his ridiculous squad selections.

I do know this:

Defense needs to be fixed. Midfield needs to hold on to the ball and win challenges on both sides of the pitch (defensive/attacking MF) and we need finishers up front, which means keeping Benzema off the field and giving Gignac, Cisse, and Ribery the nod. Anelka can play in the slot if he wants but he’s so much better when he has a Drogba next to him, and that situation doesn’t exist for him in the French NT.

4 in back, 1 defensive MF, 3 MF/AM, 2 forwards/strikers…
or a 4-1-4-1??

Has domenech ever tried these before? And is it too late to try something new for the friendlies, or are we stuck with 4-2-3-1?

Cisse-Gignac (or just Gignac)
Henry-Nasri-Ribery (or Henry, Nasri, Gourcuff, Ribery)
Diarra (or Vieira, if he re-discovers his form)
Cissokho (or Clichy)-Mexes(or can Abidal play CD-L?)-Ciani(don’t we have anyone else who can play CD-R???)-Sagna
Lloris

gignac-menez
malouda-gourcuff-ribery
toulalan
tremoulinas-squillaci-ciani-bocaly
lloris

how sould you ever consider a striker to be a clinical finisher and good when he only has 6 goals and 4 assists, not only that but he seems to have to take 30 shots just to score one, i have nothing wrong with benzema to ride the pine but gignac should not even be on the roster, hell why not give loic remy a try with 11 goals in the league in as many starts. thats the problem we have, going with the hype and keeping those players, obviously Dom would never pick his roster smartly, but i keep my hopes up. France to win it all!!