World Cup 2018: France boss Didier Deschamps could quit if they lose to Argentina side short on star quality

Under pressure: The France collective is less than the sum of its parts under Deschamps
REUTERS
Tom Collomosse29 June 2018

Didier Deschamps has been assured his job is safe if France are knocked out by Argentina but he could decide to take matters into his own hands.

After reaching the final of Euro 2016, France rightly arrived in Russia as one of the favourites to lift the World Cup. Just look at the players they were able to leave out of their 23-man squad: Aymeric Laporte, Lucas Digne, Adrien Rabiot, Kingsley Coman, Alexandre Lacazette, Anthony Martial.

Somehow, though, the collective is less than the sum of its parts. Antoine Griezmann has managed only one goal — a penalty against Australia — in the opening three matches and has not dovetailed with the team’s other global star, Paul Pogba. Though Kylian Mbappe got the winner against Peru, he spent as much time helping his own full-back as he did attacking Peru’s.

Ousmane Dembele has done little, while Nabil Fekir, the Lyon attacker, was still left out of the starting XI for the 0-0 bore draw against Denmark, even though France had already qualified.

Questions have been asked in France about coach Deschamps’s ability to bring the best from such a gifted group but Noel Le Graet, the president of the French FA, retains faith in the man who captained France to World Cup glory in 1998.

“He will lead the team until 2020,” Le Graet said this week. “It’s perfectly clear.”

Yet if France do not reach the last eight, will Deschamps really want to carry on, knowing he will be held responsible for a failure on this scale?

Because apart from Lionel Messi, and possibly Ever Banega if he can repeat his performance against Nigeria, France should really have nothing to fear from this Argentina team.

In Pictures | Denmark vs France, World Cup | 26/06/2018

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Argentina are so flimsy without the ball that it is difficult to see how they can stop the lightning French counter-attacks. And with Javier Mascherano creaking, they can no longer play the sort of defensive game that could frustrate France.

The breathless win over Nigeria did not mask Argentina’s multiple flaws — on or off the pitch. It was said that the players were in the mood for mutiny against coach Jorge Sampaoli after the 3-0 defeat by Croatia, and it remains unclear how much influence Sampaoli now has over selection and tactics. Messi spoke to the players in the tunnel before the start of the second half against Nigeria, with Sampaoli already in the dug-out.

“France have excellent players and a good team but we are Argentina and we have our own,” said Giovani Lo Celso, a midfielder with Paris St-Germain. “I don’t know if you can say that it was a miracle we qualified but it was certainly very hard work. It will give us more strength when we play France.”

Federico Fazio expressed a similar view. “Against Nigeria, we effectively had a knock-out game, and all the games from now on will be like this. That gives us an advantage,” said the former Tottenham defender.

Fazio has yet to feature in the tournament, with Nicolas Otamendi and Marcos Rojo, who scored the late winner against Nigeria, likely to be preferred again in central defence. Their main task will be to keep Griezmann quiet, who needs to rediscover the form that helped him become top scorer at Euro 2016.

There are no doubts about Griezmann’s ability but his recent decisions have been odd. First there was the overblown ‘La Decision’ documentary, in which Griezmann revealed he would stay at Atletico Madrid rather than join Barcelona.

And this week — one of the most important of his career — Griezmann was discussing a possible future in Major League Soccer, while pondering which club he might join — Lyon or Marseille, for the record — if he ever decides to return home.

France need Griezmann to refocus. Their World Cup chances may depend on it.

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