French James Milner...whats the point of Sissoko?
To be fair to Giroud and Koscieniy - they always take two months off from around Jan-March...Six of France's starting XI play in the Premier League and the lack of a winter break in England doesn't seem to be bothering them.
The winter break argument has never been backed up by any real evidence anyway.Six of France's starting XI play in the Premier League and the lack of a winter break in England doesn't seem to be bothering them.
The winter break argument has never been backed up by any real evidence anyway.
England are shit because the players are inferior to the best nations, the management is more often than not hopeless and the leadership in the game across the country is lacking in almost every area from the grassroots up.
I agree that the player material argument is the least valid of the three, but it has been a factor over the years. England players have never been as good as the media (and the most gullible fans) have wanted them to be.I think Wales have somewhat put to bed the inferior argument, I put full blame on the management and the incompetency of the FA.
I agree that the player material argument is the least valid of the three, but it has been a factor over the years. England players have never been as good as the media (and the most gullible fans) have wanted them to be.
Clever tactics tonight by Deschamps, on the face of it playing Pogba and Matuidi in what looked like a CM2/4231 but in fact what he played was kind of two triangles. With Sissoko pretty much forming a CM3/triangle with Pogba and Matuidi, whilst Payet, Griezmann and Giroud formed an attacking triangle. As ever in football it was fluid and there was some interchangeability but it meant with Iceland's 442/4411/451 France were never outmuscled in midfield.
-------Pogba--------Matuidi
^
Sissoko
V
---------Griezmann-------Payet
-------------------Giroud
Going two up helped of course. It radically changed Iceland's plan to not have the ball, and played perfectly into France's hands, but you have to say France played the game from then on in to perfection, doing exactly what you should do against a team who now need to chase the ball, they didn't shell it, they starved them of it, patiently passing it around the back and midfield, moving Iceland side to side, in and out and then ba-bing-ba-bing-ba-bang-ba-bang hitting them in places they'd moved them out of. 4-0 game over.
As I said the CM triangle was set up just right, but the attacking triangle of Payet left with Griezmann buzzing around of Giroud was also a perfect combo, and Giroud and Griezmann in particular were superb, that flick by Giroud and scoop chip finish be Griezmann my favourite goal of the tournament so far.
It's a shame the two best teams, by a long margin, will now meet in the semi instead of the final, neither Wales or Portugal deserve to be anywhere near the final, although either could end up winning the fucking thing, this is football after all.