Argentina: Deschamps, alone against the rest of the world, one step away from eternity

From our Special Envoy in Doha,

We can blame a lot of things on Noël Le Graët, but if there is one thing on which he was right, the cushy, it is on the fact of granting blind confidence in Didier Deschamps. Because it was necessary to have some (solid support, conviction, call it what you want) to keep his friend in post after the fiasco in Bucharest last summer when, in the offices of 3F, it was pushing hard for a big summer household named Zidane. And if the Breton decided all the same not to offer him an extension before the Qatari World Cup – what he used to do before each major competition as a mark of his esteem and his confidence – today here he is at pray to all the Celtic gods that DD agrees not to hold it against him and stacks up at least until Euro 2024.

But Deschamps repeated it to us again in a press conference on Saturday, on the eve of the grand final against Argentina, this is not the time to talk about his future. He is entirely focused on this quest for a third star, the second in four years, still with him at the helm. “The most important thing has never been me, it has always been the France team, I consider that it is above everything, he recalled. I have been in his service for ten years and still, there, for the match on Sunday. If he manages to bring down the Albiceleste of a Leo Messi who has become a bad boy when it comes time to hang up his crampons in selection, Deschamps would then become the only coach in history to have won two World Cups (in a row, moreover) as a coach, with the Italian Vittorio Pozzo at the beginning of the last century (1934, 1938).

The group, this sacred element for Deschamps

Assuming that Pozzo has been on the left for a long time, DD would therefore be the only living legend to have achieved this feat among the approximately 7 billion human beings who inhabit our planet. Enough to give you the right to show off at least a little bit. But he won’t. Because there is one thing about Deschamps that no one can question, and that is his moderate taste for fame and ego, at least in appearance.

Each of his speeches invariably ends up on his group. This sacrosanct group that Deschamps will always defend tooth and nail in public, the one that is the center of his vision of selection football. Again, Wednesday evening, after qualifying against Morocco: “As a coach, my satisfaction goes first to the group of players who are there, I don’t think of myself, it’s mainly for them”.

It’s not false modesty, he really means it. However, how many in his place would have at least pulled the cover to them, or even danced the sirtaki on the stage of the press room of the Al-Bayt stadium, without there being anything more to complain about. Because, as he slipped Friday in the bend of a question on the loneliness of the French, whom the whole world dreams of seeing lose against Argentina, he is also “often alone” against the rest of the media world and popular. “But it suits me just fine that way,” he smiled. Always criticized for his reluctance, his philosophy of winning at the expense of the beautiful game, also criticized at the beginning of November for his list of 25 in reinforced concrete, a sign, it was thought, that the man had lost his hand.

Dede’s paw

And what did we not say about his sudden abandonment of the three-man defense, which had been worked on for more than a year before the World Cup? We then think back to these words written just before the first match against Australia, at a time when we could see ourselves going home before having seen the color of the last four: “It will be nice to spend hours talking about this list that looks like a philosophical back-pedalling, at the time of reckoning, it is the coach and he alone who will pay the bill. And we are going to swallow our hat. Basically, only those who really know him were right not to worry. Like Philippe Tournon, the former press chief of the Blues recalled by Deschamps the day he took office in 2012.

You have to trust the know-how of Didier Deschamps to get the best out of his group, bring it to the essential cohesion and iron out small differences. He is a past master in the art of forming a united group and managing it, he told us before we embarked for Doha. He’s a guy who doesn’t cultivate nostalgia, who doesn’t ask questions. He leads his reflection and he moves forward. It’s made like that. I have frequented it too much to doubt Didier’s management today. »

A month later, it is clear that Tournon was right. Selection man for excellence, Didier Deschamps is a master in the art of forming groups that will follow him with their eyes closed because they know that in the end, most of the time, there is a win at the end of the road. Close to his players, he has a knack for convincing everyone that his ideas are the right ones, that this is the way to play and no other way. Would a Mbappé accept over an entire season to play in a team that gives up the ball 60% of the time to the opponent, as was the case against England in the quarter and Morocco in the half? It is permissible to doubt it. But for Didier, number 10 signs at the bottom of the page with his eyes closed.

It is also the strength of great coaches. That and this truly amazing ability to adapt even in the worst storms. Fate, to which he says he believes a lot, wants the Blues to play this World Cup without half of their typical team (Kimpembe, Lucas Hernandez, Pogba, Kanté and Benzema)? No problem, we’re going to take Upamecano out of the drawer and find the right words so that he finally becomes in Blue the monster he is at Bayern. And then come on, we will also convince Griezmann between two doors at Clairefontaine that he will play box-to-box and that everything will be fine. Pavard is grounded? Koundé will do the job with a ban on climbing above the center line. Etc., etc. So many shots that make Philippe Tournon say on RMC that “we have to stop talking about the cat to Dédé, it’s Dédé’s paw! “.

France-Germany 2016, his ultimate benchmark

“There are always imponderables, modestly explained the Basque on Friday at a press conference. The key word is adaptation. No worries or stress. The important thing is to maintain serenity”. This same serenity that makes criticism of his team’s game slide over him like rillettes on a radiator. “The analysis of the media, the fact of knowing if we offer spectacular play, he doesn’t give a damn, assured us Jérôme Rothen at the start of the competition. On arrival, it is he who is right, we only remember the result. His image and that of his team will be linked to the result, period”.

It is not insignificant that when a colleague from The Team asks him before the start of the World Cup what is his most successful match in his eyes since his arrival on the bench of the France team, Deschamps chooses France-Germany in the semi-finals of Euro 2016. Finally, his answer could be enough on its own to sum up the philosophy of Didier Deschamps: “You are surely talking about the content, but I cannot separate it from the result. So I would say France-Germany in Marseille. We suffered so much in the first half hour… Choosing a match where we won after suffering, it’s not contradictory, because we got what we wanted, while the Germans were so strong! “. Win in suffering, but win at all costs. He only has one more to win before he can sit up there and look down on the world. Before stacking up until 2024? Not impossible since there is still a Euro to be won.

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