France: Strength in style, experience, diversity
Photo credit: William Morice
It’s all over now.
After a month of excitement, Russia 2018 reached its end with many surprises: the early elimination of Germany during the group stage — something that never happened before in the World Cups — and the failures of Argentina and Spain during the knockout round. But the best of the unexpected was the appearance of Croatia in the World Cup final.
However, besides all the surprises, Russia and the world witnessed one of the most solid champions, a team which barely suffered to achieve results. Even if they didn’t display the most brilliant of spectacles, France was the best team in the World Cup, and was defined by different factors.
STYLE
The systems of Germany and Spain were methodologies that have been practiced for almost a decade. The successful decoding of their strategies, identifying their weak points and exploiting them, caused part of the collapse of the last two world champions. The French did the opposite in 2018; they were unpredictable.
France manager Didier Deschamps tends to trap his opponents. He lets them have the initiative at certain moments of the game, acknowledging that ball possession doesn’t illustrate dominium. During every match, the Frenchmen managed something much more important than the ball: the rhythm of the game.
Every team the French played was a victim of their tempo; they danced at the French pace. No team inflicted damage to them because the style was design to succeed, and no team knew how to read the French system.
FRENCH MARKET
In the last several years, France has become an attractive market to feed the top clubs in the world. According to Transfermarkt, Ligue 1 has the second-youngest average age of the five prominent leagues in the world — Spain, France, England, Italy and Germany — just older than Germany.
The talent of the Ligue 1 emigrates to more competitive leagues at a young age; the excellent technical ability and fast maturity of French players make them desirable to many clubs.
As a consequence, French footballers are very present in transfer windows. For example, Kylian Mbappe, 19, is the most expensive transaction of the summer. Thomas Lemar, 22, just signed with Atletico for €70 million. And Clement Lenglet, 23, will be joining Samuel Umtiti at Barcelona.
Last year, Ousmane Dembele was sold for €115 million to Barcelona, and Paul Pogba was the first player to break the €100 million barrier for a transaction in 2016. But the most important factor was that Transfermrkt valued the French World Cup roster in €1.2 billion, which was the highest-priced roster of the 32 national teams that participated in the World Cup.
STRATEGY
Deschamps designed his team with two tactical drawings: a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. France was composed to win, but most importantly, Deschamps had answers to different game situations in case there were troubles.
During the first two games, we saw Antoine Griezmann as a false striker, accompanied by Dembele and Mbappe as left and right wings. Pogba and Tolisso acted free in the midfield with Kante as their shield. The 4-4-3 gave the French squad more ball possession and speed on the sides.
However, Deschamps noticed that there was active attacking by both flanks, but the presence of a center forward was needed so the team could be more dangerous with a reference for delivery inside of the box instead of pulling Griezmann out of it.
With the 4-2-3-1, Griezmann’s organizing role was more vertical and productive by having Giroud on the field; N’Golo Kante had a physical and very technical player like Pogba to help him in the recovery of the ball without covering the whole pitch, but the vital decision came with Blaise Matuidi.
Instead of choosing offensive disequilibrium with Lemar or Dembele, Deschamps opted for Matuidi, a player whose physicality is unbreakable, a motor that knew how to distribute and recover. Deschamps chose the opposite: team equilibrium.
Playing as a left mid was something unusual for Matuidi because he is a natural center midfielder. Even so, he was the surprise factor when the Frenchmen offended; his experience and his traverse through the whole field made him the essential incorporation into the starting 11.
With Kante, Pogba and Matuidi, France defended much better in the first third of the field. The left side of Les Bleus was impenetrable; the sacrifice of the whole team when they gave up possession was impeccable.
LESSON LEARNED
In 2016, Les Bleus lost at home in the Euro final against Portugal, a rival that was below their level and characteristics. This accident was a turning point toward French success, condemning repeating the same outcome in a very similar situation.
France was the favorite in every game they played; there was no better team than them. In seven matches, Les Bleus showed enough material to achieve the title, but this time they reached the objective.
In a World Cup full of surprises, France was the only team that embraced and executed the role of a champion.
DIVERSITY
In 1998, the French press denominated the local team “generation black, blanc, beur,” which means the black, white and Arab generation. The same generation achieved the first World Cup title for France.
In 2010, politician Marie Le Pen expressed her concern about the diversity in the French squad because some of the players had “another nationality in their hearts.” AJ Plus reported that for the 2018 World Cup, 19 of 23 players in the French squad are immigrants or children of immigrants.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world because of its simplicity and diversity. The most prominent leagues in the world have plenty of different backgrounds in their teams. Football doesn’t put tags on their primary assets; a player is well known for what he or she does on the field, not by his or her skin color or beliefs. And again, the heterogeneity of France helped them hoist a new world title.
Vive les champions du monde!
Follow Luis on Twitter: @LFulloa.
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