Are the Blues really “boring” to watch?

The French team has not yet scored a goal in this Euro, since its only achievement was scored by an Austrian player against his side.

No goals scored by your own players, no goals conceded, and you are bored in front of your television watching the France team? It is perhaps because the Blues’ game is “boring to watch”, as Antoine Griezmann defined it before the start of the Euro. However, the Blues created opportunities and responded to the physical duel. All he seems to be missing are goals to ignite. They will be essential against Poland, Tuesday June 25, if the French team wants to qualify in first position in its group.

“You have to win, no matter how. I think that to go as far as possible, you have to have a very good defense. From there, you have Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Marcus Thuram, Randal Kolo Muani and Olivier Giroud who can score at any time I think that’s our basis: being strong defensively, not giving anything to the opponent, and then offensively, in ‘one against one’, crosses or long shots. , trying to score… It’s very annoying to watch, but that’s how it is, it makes you win”replied Antoine Griezmann, when asked about the style of play of the France team during preparation at Clairefontaine.

“It’s not boring. The more you control, the better, but there are opponents who are there. At a high level, you have to be able to defend when you don’t have the ball. We were world champions in 2018 if I remember correctly”, Didier Deschamps replied on the L’Equipe channel. Questioned again on this subject after the first two less than flamboyant matches of the Blues at the Euro, the coach remained on his line of defense. “Annoying? You’re free to comment. What’s annoying is not having scored with all the chances we’ve had. We have popular support, I think that if people don’t like what they see, they change the channel”he said.

The coach is right about the number of chances for the France team. The Blues had 29 shots on goal in the first two matches against Austria and the Netherlands, but only had six attempts on target. According to the expected goals model, which calculates how many goals should have been scored depending on offensive situations, the Blues should have had between 3 and 4 on the counter (3.4). Defensively, France is the second team that conceded the fewest shots on average (7 per match, behind Germany, 5.33).

Against the Netherlands, Didier Deschamps fielded a team made up of numerous midfielders, with N’Golo Kanté and Aurélien Tchouaméni lined up in midfield, then Adrien Rabiot and Antoine Griezmann positioned higher up. “I am making choices to have the most balanced team to attack and defend well, against a Dutch team which was more cautious than usual”the coach rightly justified, as the Oranje remained behind in the second half.

“In the first match against Austria, it was an ultra-committed match, the game was not the priority on one side or the other, but we won the battle of the fight. In the second match , we created a lot of chances while in the second half, we found a very regrouped team, which was no longer playing much. And when you play against a low block, it’s not easy to create chances. “We did it anyway, so I find it positive.”analyzed Jonathan Clauss at a press conference on Sunday.

“There are people who want to win, others who want to play well, others who want to win by playing well. But at the end of the career, we will remember the results rather than the way of playing. He there have been very good results with this coach recently in the French team, so for me it is the most important, decided Aurélien Tchouaméni. I understand that for some who want to watch a great game, we may not be the team that plays the best, but we are the one that finds itself most often in the final four, so that’s what I don’t care.”

The midfielder would now like the efficiency of the Blues to unlock “like ketchup”, so that his teammates are definitely launched in this Euro. This would also allow them to gain confidence before the round of 16. All that remains is to try to qualify in first place to avoid falling into a complicated part of the table with Spain, Germany and Portugal. For this, the Blues will have no other choice than to score “as many goals as possible”as N’Golo Kanté declared, because on Tuesday evening, we will have to achieve a better result than the Netherlands.