Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
It’s hard to argue against the suggestion that France have the best squad in international football.
So you might think that managing such an elite group of players is an easy task – but that’s not necessarily true.
For proof, look at the number of cases where clubs crumble under the challenge of managing the wealth of talent they sign or the personalities of superstars.
Since taking the France job in 2012, Didier Deschamps has constantly reinvented his side and got the most out of France’s vast pool of talent.
Even more impressively, he has a reputation for doing so mid-tournament – tweaking his system game by game to land on formulas that win the World Cup or come very close to doing so.
This familiar pattern looks set to emerge in this World Cup as well.
Deschamps is particularly adept at maximizing his top attacking talents and seems to have prioritized getting the most out of Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe, now 27, prefers to be involved in the game rather than just being a back-row runner to finish moves – as he did brilliantly as a 19-year-old in France’s 2018 victory.
The challenge for Deschamps at this World Cup is to fit him in as a number nine while keeping the rest of the team ticking over.
In qualifying, Deschamps devised a logical, if unorthodox, system. On paper, it was a 4-2-4 or a 4-2-3-1.
Mbappe dropped deep and pulled wide for the Liverpool forward to play Hugo Ekiti down the left. Ektik, from the wing, or Dembele – from the more standard number 10 position – could both move into the centre-forward position. Michael Ollis plays on the right wing.
In this World Cup opener against Senegal, Deschamps lined up France the same way, with Desiree Dui bringing on the injured Ekiti.
