How Not to Win With An Attck Worth 150 Goals

This is an article about the struggles of one of the most talented teams in Europe and the world, and their struggles to win matches during the UEFA Nations League competition. It's an article to lay bare the dilemma of their coach in utilizing and ultra talented frontline in the absence of their two best midfielders.

If one month ago someone had predicted that the French national team would be occupying the last position on their UEFA Nations League group, he would have been called a joker. How can the mighty France, world champions struggle against teams like Austria and Denmark? A team with an attack that amassed a total of 150 goals in the just concluded season has failed to score more than once in the 4 matches.

They opened the campaign with a 1-2 loss at home to Denmark as they took the lead through their talisman, only to crumble later and concede two goals to end up losing the match. The Frenchmen toiled and huffed and puffed to no avail, dominating possession, but with no end product to show for it as creativity from midfield to unlock the opposition's defense was scarce and almost non existent. In this match they paraded an attack with over 80 goals.

In the second match just as in the first, they took the lead against Croatia but couldn't hold on till the end as they conceded in the final 10 minutes to draw the match 1-1. Another case of not being able to hold on to a lead, a situation that's not easily associated with this current French team. Perhaps they could've been excused as the two top dogs (Kylian and Karim) did not feature in the match, but then they still fielded an attack with over 70 goals between them.

The third match should've been a time for redemption and an opportunity to Kickstart their campaign properly, but expectations were doused when Austria took the lead in the first half. It only took the intervention of Kylian from the bench in the 83rd minute to salvage a point from the match. The team looked like a lot of work rate but very little returns, as the attackers had to feed off crumps.

On their return leg against Croatia in France, the crowd was silenced early as the Croats took an early lead through a Luka Modrič penalty. Again another 85 minutes of futile toiling ensued with nothing to show as the away team ran out winners. The attack of Benzema, Mbappé and Nkunku that started that match has scored a whooping 118 goals between them. But out of their 17 shots in the game, only 4 were on target and 5 were blocked while 8 went off target.

Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappé, Christopher Nkunku and Wissam Ben Yedder are a frightening strike force with about 150 goals between them, but could not score more than one goal per match, ending with a measly 3 goals in 4 matches. This begs the questions, what is going wrong for them? Is it poor movement on their part? Or is it poor service from the midfield? Or is the system not working?

The biggest problem this team has right now is its midfield. The absence of Ngolo Kante's energy and positioning intelligence and Paul Pogba's exquisite vision is affecting the team badly. Though Ngolo played the first match, he was paired with Tchouameni who is more of a screener that a creative hub in a midfield two. This meant that the creative burden shifted to the wingers Coman and Mbappé, which made it easy for the Danish players to overcrowd the wings and neutralize the threat.

France under Didier Deschamps have always been a defense first team, not a possession based team. They've always been most deadly when the hit the opposition on the counter with Paul Pogba's diagonal passes and Mbappé's pace wrecking havoc (I hope you remember Marcos Rojo). But in the last 4 matches, the likes of Tchouameni, Rabiot, Kamara and Guendouzi were more comfortable making easy sideways passes and hoping the forwards can perform magic.

As much as they're currently struggling, this team isn't a bad team, but they're just missing the little ingredients that made it such a tough nut to crack and a well oiled machine. The system hasn't changed, but Deschamps has some decisions to make. He can well start by reverting Kounde to Centre back in place of Konaté, and bring Pavard back into full back. He can then bring Theo Hernandez in to replace Lucas Digne. The most important part being the bringing back of Paul Pogba and Ngolo Kanté partnership, or finding a suitable creative midfielder like Thomas Lemar to fill in the creative midfield spot.

Untill then, France are really showing us how not to win with a 150 goal attack. And for their own sake, long may it not continue.