Possible Starters for France-Faroe Islands

October 12th, 2007 | by: Laurie | View Comments

This list of “possible” starters is all I’m finding in l’Equipe so far, but I think I like it:

L’équipe possible : Landreau – Sagna, Thuram, Mexès (ou Abidal), Abidal (ou Evra) – Makelele, Toulalan, Ribéry, Rothen – Benzema, Henry.

This game against the 0-point Faroes is definitely the time to test out new things, so yes, let’s try Bakary Sagna in that black hole at rightback, and see if Jérôme Rothen can get the job done where Florent Malouda couldn’t. (It pains me to say that, because I love Malouda, but the team needs results.) And I am SO much more comfortable with Jérémy Toulalan in the holding midfielder role than I would be with Vieira.

(And this is irrelevant to the France team, but Inara, did you know that when you google “Jérémy Toulalan,” you’re right under Wikipedia with your article, “Jérémy Toulalan Wants to Give Us Pleasure”? Just thought you’d like to know.)

My only big question mark is starting Thierry Henry up front instead of Nicolas Anelka. I haven’t seen Henry play at Barcelona yet this year, but I’m having a hard time seeing him as better than Anelka. But I am beyond thrilled at the thought of seeing Karim Benzema as a starter!!

In other news, as “glatisant” pointed out in the comments, Louis Saha is out with a knee injury and has been replaced by Hatem Ben Arfa! (Woohoo!) (More on that Saha-Ben Arfa-Trezeguet love triangle later.)

I really, really hope that Ben Arfa will get subbed in and get his first cap while Benzema is on the field. After watching them steamroll Metz with Lyon, I’d love to see what they could do against Faroe Islands, and possibly even Lithania.

All in all, this lineup seems hopeful and forward-thinking to me. What do you think?

Please post links to viewing options in the comments. I’ll be watching on the PPV JumpTV because they haven’t let me down so far. $6.95 5o watch one match live, $2.95 to watch it “differed.” (I’m assuming they’ll eventually change this to “deferred.”)