Le Sélectionneur, Raymond Domenech: Soon-to-be legend or wrong man for the job?

[...] Raymond Domenech: Legend or loser? (France Blog) [...]

It’s obvious that there are the players to win this thing. In fact there are too many of them as you said. This is such a luxury lineup, yet a source of huge headaches. How to harmonize all that variey of international league play? It seems in 2006, Domenech used a Lyon nucleus and added skill, experience and speed to it with Zidane et al. This year, it still may be a good idea. One thing is for sure, something went right when Zidane, Makalele, Vieira and Thuram were there; I think it had to do with the elders keeping in check the younger ones’ egos and bringing a unity to the group.
It seems to me if somebody else was at the helm, the problem would be just the same; maybe a couple more players would be added to the pool, which wouldn’t really guarantee that we still come up with the desired golden combination. It’s not like in both Scotland games, they dominated us from start to finish, and the outcome could have turned differently if not for fairly little things. The French players on the field had it in them to do at least 2 draws easily, it just didn’t happen. I’m not really among those who would blame the coach for every inaccurate shot.
All is still to be done; we know that France plays its best with the back to the wall. At this point I am glad we have just the same chance as anybody else there; unlike England – and we were there once. And unless he makes whacked decisions, at least I am thankful for Domenech to have taken us there, from a group that included some bad @sses.
Let’s remember that in the Euro, there are usually plenty of surprises, and often a nation like Greece or Denmark can ruin the so-called favorite’s plans.

I have to agree with what Doume said. No matter who the coach is, France would still have the same problem. Having a lot of talented players is just as much of a headache as not having enough. It’s hard to find the right system to accommodate them all, so eventually, someone is going to have to get shafted. And there will always be some uneasiness among the players out on the pitch. Very few NTs in recent times perform smoothly and easily together, especially the ones with players scattered all across Europe.

In that respect, Domenech’s penchant for using a Lyon (and Arsenal) core group of players is a pretty good idea – having at least some players who are familiar with each other on the pitch is better than having 11 strangers who only meet up a handful of times a year.

We have to ask ourselves that despite some unimpressive performances, has France ever deserved to lose a game they failed to win (okay, maybe the Morocco one…)? France is almost always the better team, and it’s the lack of finishing that kills us. You can’t blame Domenech for that, unless you’re accusing him of not having his strikers practicing enough.

I think more than anything else, it’s Domenech’s polarity that bothers me, as it appears you’re either a Domenech favorite (the Diarras, Clerc, Escudé and Boumsong would be examples) or on the black list (Trez, Mexès, Giuly), though to be fair, many other sélectionneurs had similar idiosyncratic tendencies (Santini with Steve Marlet, anyone?).

Yet I’m not referring only to his extreme views when it comes to team selection, but to tactics as well, as it appears that regardless who Les Bleus are playing, it’s a 4-2-2-2 with 2 defensive midfielders, 2 wingers, 2 attackers (a variant of that is in the World Cup when there was Zidane as a #10 to go along with the lone attacker). It’s that inflexible, though.

So, though I’m trying not to repeat what others have said, this allows teams like Scotland, and also Spain in the friendly, to be able to shut down our offensive game if they are able to shut down both wings. As we have seen in those games, the ball will come to Vieira/Maké/Diarra, whose offensive games make Franck Ribéry look like Leo DiCaprio.

Now, I don’t disagree with playing with 2 defensive midfielders, but it’s Domenech’s inability to be flexible with his tactics, as well as selection, that I am afraid may very well cost us a shot at the title (then again, I don’t expect to win even if we had a different sélectionneur).

What about the idea of someone being very good at his job? What I’d like to see is a manager bring something extra to the table, unquestionable competence, but also great charisma, and a spark of inspiration. I think Jacquet brought inspiration in 1998. I’d like to see Domenech put in that kind of performance for this tournament.

The problem is that Domenech does not have the charisma that Jacquet possesed on the pitch or in the locker room. It just doesn’t seem that the players gravitate to him like they did with Jacquet. Some have even publicly criticized him. I’ve said it before and now I will co-sign what Seb wrote on his inflexibility. With all these talents at his disposal,you’d think he would adapt some of his formations and schemes. I’m grateful for the world cup final appearance but there was also a #10 who had a say in that. The void of a real #10 will unlikely be filled before the Euro which means Domenech’s genius will have to take the pepsi challenge with the rest of the squad…And that “my friends” (mccain-ism) will be the true test.

He must have something terrible against Serie A as I can think of 2 players (Mexes and Trez), that deserve to start EVERY french game!!!???!
I just don’t understand!!! The only way he will win Euro 2008 is if he swallows his pride and includes them!? Forza Mexes! X X X

This may be off-topic, but I don’t know how Domenech can exclude Frey either. He literally saved his team from elimination tonight. Anyone who wants to see what a world class goalkeeping display is? Then look no further than Everton-Fiorentina tonight.

I didn’t see the Everton-Fiorentina game, and I don’t doubt that Frey was great, and I don’t doubt that he is consistently great for his club, but what was up with the howler he had for France? This was almost certainly discussed on this site at the time, but in the context of choosing the best side for France for Euro 2008, how should the manager weigh up these performances: Consistently-excellent-for-club vs epic-howler-in-his-one-chance-for-France?

This question is not just about Frey. Trezeguet: goal-scoring-machine for Juventus, but not so-much-so for France, of late.

Club versus country always serves up a few tasty talking points.

For the record, I’m a big fan of Coupet. I thought he was extremely hard-done-by in the 2006 World Cup. For me, that’s the worst decision Domenech has made. I know France made it to the final with Barthez, but not so much because of Barthez, and when he was helpless (hopeless?) in the penalty shootout, I was cursing him and Domenech (fairly or not). I was in the mood to curse somebody.

I’m not anti-Coupet. Wait a minute, yes I am. Well it’s not so much anti-Coupet as it is pro-other keepers. Frey and Lloris, in my opinion, are able to make saves that Coupet doesn’t, even if I’ll admit that they are less consistent than Coupet. Although I think Grég is a world class keeper who can walk into any national side in the world, because my girlfriend was a keeper who was more of the spectacular type than the solid type, I’ll always have a bias toward the Frey/Lloris of the world who can pull off the jugular save in a match.

Anyway, this is getting off-topic, my fault. Why I mention Frey in the Domenech context is that I think it’d be criminal if a struggling Mickaël Landreau makes it to Austria/Switzerland at the expense of Frey/Lloris, and with Domenech, it could well happen, especially as Lloris was almost left off the lists a month ago.

Again, what worries me about Domenech is his inflexibility, in formation and selection. If he is that stubborn in his thinking that no one playing in Italy is worth anything, we may enter the tournament without our best attacker in terms of finishing, our best goalkeeper in terms of reflexes, and our best defender in terms of aerial ability, all of which would be very disadvantageous.