Striker’s reinstatement was debated for its effect on the dressing room – but the biggest problems are on the pitch
It needs more, we know, than the names on the teamsheet. Yet as France toiled against a stubborn, ultra-motivated Hungary who were as obstructive as their ebullient public demanded, it was difficult not to think that la mayonnaise ne prend pas – that it just wasn’t coming together. Certainly in the front part of the field, that was the case.
Some will want to pin that, inevitably, on the return of Karim Benzema to the squad amid much fanfare. Yet while there were mutterings about the sex tape scandal that had precipitated his five-and-a half-year absence from the France squad (he denies wrongdoing) and what such a strong character’s return might mean to dressing-room equilibrium, the technical aspect has remained largely free of analysis.
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