France – Where to begin with this most disjointed team of mavericks? Coached by Eugene Levy of American Pie fame (or is that Raymond Domenech?), the French always seem to be there or thereabouts in the final reckoning.
More questions have been realised since Lassana Diarra was ruled out – they could probably have replaced this Claude Makelele lookalike with, well… Claude Makelele. No one would have been the wiser. However, a re-jig has seen Florent Malouda introduced into a three-man central midfield alongside the outstanding Yoann Gourcuff, with anchorman Jeremy Toulalan holding it together. Clearly it can be argued that this system restricts Gourcuff, an attacking midfielder by nature, by placing too much defensive responsibility on him. With Malouda the other forward-thinking player in the three, the more harmonious trio of defensive Toulalan, creator Gourcuff and multi-tasking dynamo Diarra it seems, will be missed. (more…)
