Should Didier Deschamps remain at the head of the Blues?

1. SOFOOT.com
2. // Euro 2020
3. // French team

By leaving the Euro in the round of 16 against Switzerland, the France team experienced its most significant failure since the start of Didier Deschamps' mandate in 2012. What was still unimaginable last week is now essential. as the major challenge of the next few days for the Blues: should the 52-year-old technician end the story or continue the adventure a year and a half before the 2022 World Cup, where France will have to defend its title and restore its image?

By Clément Gavard 441 REACTIONSShow rightShow bottomFACEBOOKTWITTERShould Didier Deschamps stay on the bench for the France team?France had almost forgotten what the unfortunate tomorrow looked like. The surprise elimination against Switzerland in the round of 16 of a Euro where they were presented as great favorites revived forgotten feelings, those caused by a bitter failure, and gave way to a question still unimaginable a few days earlier: the future close to the France team will he write with Didier Deschamps on his bench? “My future? That's not the question, the double world champion immediately swept away at a press conference after the disappointment. You know, we said things to each other. There is solidarity, unity in this group, a strength that emerges. I have a responsibility, I assume it. I am with them, they are with me. It's sport, you have to accept it, even if it hurts. It is planned that we see each other in September... "Some will see the beginning of a desire to continue the adventure and set the table for the start of the school year, others will lean more towards a traditional exercise in wooden language with DD sauce. After almost a decade of marriage with the France team and the FFF, Deschamps may have to take the time to reflect to make an important decision for him as for the Blues, with a question in the background: DD can he make the France team win again? “I assume my responsibilities. Credit goes to the players when we win and to me when we lose. Would they have done better in another system? Maybe, but we lose after leading 3-1. »Didier Deschamps

Deschamps and false notes

It is never easy to come down from a pedestal, or rather a cloud in this case, especially when the fall is sudden and unexpected. On the night of Bucharest, Didier Deschamps did not evacuate the disappointment by drawing a lunar marriage proposal. He contented himself with wandering on the lawn of the Arena Națională, trying to comfort his foals with pats on the shoulder, without succeeding or even trying to hide an obvious suffering at the sight of his reddened and closed face. . As never since the beginning of his mandate at the head of the Blues, the coach made a mistake in the great widths, against Switzerland and since the start of a failed Euro. Nothing went as planned on Monday night, but that may be because the 52-year-old technician hadn't known how to plan properly to avoid such a disaster. By dint of groping and juggling between systems, Deschamps lost control of events, and the thread of his glorious history with the selection. "The first half does not prove me right, obviously, he conceded after the meeting . Would we have done better by starting differently? Maybe, but we had done what was necessary to reverse the trend…” Everyone will have time to criticize themselves in the coming days, the French coach should not escape it. He will be able to observe that the war machine that he had shaped in Russia three years earlier has lost its luster this summer, between the contrary elements (injuries, health context, failing individuals, etc.) and the dubious choices made by his staff. Deschamps: “I assume my responsibilities. Credit goes to the players when we win and to me when we lose. Would they have done better in another system? Maybe, but we lose after leading 3-1. “That’s a lot of “maybe” for a man renowned for never leaving anything to chance, and who built his reign in the France team by placing the result above the game and everything else, even if it means make some enemies on the way to success. Coincidence or not, it was when Deschamps broke this image of a boring and stubborn technician, by testing many game patterns in the fall and then by recalling Karim Benzema in the spring, that the boss of the Blues received his greatest slap. This could now call everything into question for the future, and bring about the end of a beautiful story. "With Didier, we have to have a good day together, to chat and at the end of day, we will have a decision. » Noel Le Graët

A story in suspense

There will then be no question of leaving angry, Deschamps having done too much for a French team soiled by the Knysna episode two years before his arrival, but rather of saluting the lucidity of a man obsessed with victory. Can he only return his apron at the end of such a failure? Recent examples from our neighbors prove that the kings of the world (or of Europe) often struggle to put down their crown and turn the page at the right time. In Germany, Joachim Löw will have waited almost three years before realizing that the 2018 World Cup had marked the end of his story with the Mannschaft; Vicente del Bosque had not given up either after the catastrophic elimination of Spain, defending champion and double European champion at the 2014 World Cup, pushing until Euro 2016 and an ordinary eighth of final; the situation is currently the same for Fernando Santos, in failure since the coronation of Portugal in 2016 and extended until 2024 before the current continental tournament. The day after the elimination against Switzerland, Noël Le Graët delivered his first words on the subject on the sidelines of the election of Brigitte Henriques as president of the CNOSF, without giving any indication of the future of Deschamps, whose lease with the FFF runs until 2022, but recalling that "the objective n 'had not been reached'. 'I didn't think about that,' continued the 79-year-old man. To continue a mission, you both have to be on the same wavelength. For the moment, since I haven't seen it, I don't know. With Didier, we have to have a good day together, to chat and at the end of the day, we will have a decision. I learned that in life, you should never make a hasty decision. We'll talk about what happened. (...) This elimination is a bit annoying in the economic situation of the Fed. We hoped to go a little further, you can imagine. But we were very happy when he won everything. “In the hours following the exit of the Blues from the Euro, the name of Zinédine Zidane, free since leaving Real Madrid last month, appeared as obvious to take over from his former captain on the bench. Tricolors. Didier Deschamps, he will have to decide in the coming days if his story with the France team should continue, or be combined with the past again. By Clément Gavard Have you noticed a typo or an inaccuracy in this paper? Suggest a correction to our editors.