It’s not that we had many illusions, but still, speaking of a guy who has planted 27 times in Ligue 1 this season and who has better stats than the gluttons Mbappé and Haaland in 2023, we said to himself that why not, on a misunderstanding. There was none, of course, when Didier Deschamps listed the names of the lucky winners for the next two matches of the Blues (June 16 against Gibraltar, June 19 against Greece), this Wednesday at the start of the afternoon. Alexandre Lacazette (32) will not have the right to a comeback, he who has not tasted the Blues for more than five years.
After all these years, we are beginning to master our little guide to SD, not the kind to remind players overnight that he no longer considers to be part of his project. We have seen how the only time he resolved to do so ended (Karim Benzema, for the two bottoms who did not follow). The captain of Les Gones would not have been spotty, however, and could have rendered many services for these two games placed at the end of an extended season. He is in full swing, with 13 goals scored in 11 days since his return from injury in March, a real lifeline for a team that has spent its season looking for a coherent game plan.
Asked about this absence, Deschamps paid the necessary tribute to the General’s season, while unfolding the arguments we expected. “Good for him if he scored so many goals, congratulations to him. Alex has always had this quality of efficiency, he praised. He is one of the selectable, after there is competition for this position, players who are there and who meet my expectations and those of the France team. I’m not going to take three, four, five in the same position, it wouldn’t make sense. But we continue to follow him. »
The coach recalled it, it could not be clearer in his mind for the moment: “There are boxes, each position is doubled, today Olivier Giroud and Randal Kolo Muani are the two players who occupy this position (of centre-forward). On closer inspection, some adjustments could still have been imagined. Kolo Muani is not a pure goalscorer either and taking Lacazette as Giroud’s understudy didn’t seem completely insane.
Still a hope for the Euro?
Instead of whom? If the return of Nkunku is not debatable given how the former Parisian returns full blast after the serious injury which made him miss the World Cup, we can however debate the presence of Marcus Thuram, author of a correct season. but not flamboyant either (13 goals with Monchengladbach) and who will not live forever on his assist with a header for Mbappé in the World Cup final.
His profile as a center-forward who can also play on one side in the 4-3-3 in effect since the World Cup also corresponds to that of Kolo Muanin knowing that Coman and Dembélé are also there to take care of the sides. . In short, if DD did not take the captain of OL, it is because he considers him as a plan B at best.
All hope is not lost either for Lacaz’ – who for his part doesn’t make a fix at all, by the way. If for example Giroud, 37 pins on the clock, were to really drop off and the Lyonnais had a season of the same bill, it is not said that the Euro would be done without him. The competition will take place in Germany, where the story came to an abrupt end on a double night, in November 2017. We will still have to wait before releasing the violins. For now, France continues to move forward without the last Ballon d’Or and the only man capable of competing with Mbappé in their domestic championship.