French national team: pressing, four starting attackers... Didier Deschamps takes charge of the French team's offensive transformation
Against Ukraine, the coach highlighted his players' excellent first half, during which their pressing allowed them to leave no chance for their opponents.
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After his team's victory in what he considered the toughest match on the road to the 2026 World Cup, against Ukraine (2-0) , Didier Deschamps did not hide his satisfaction in front of the media. He did not correct the journalist who asked him if a step had already been taken on the road to qualification. "It's better to win, of course. It was an important match," noted the coach, who was particularly pleased with his team's performance in the first half.
"We could have put ourselves out of harm's way because we were in such control. We harassed them (...). We had already done it in March, in June too with different opponents. We had this ability to put them under pressure and to win back high balls, and even to win back balls that we had just lost. It's interesting," he observed in the post-match press conference, with a compliment in passing for Michael Olise , author of the opening goal, whom he found "radiant" . Inevitably, his words resonate when we know that the outlines of his team for the 2026 World Cup are still very vague.
A little over a year after a disappointing Euro 2020, Didier Deschamps has embraced an offensive transformation. In addition to fielding a starting lineup featuring four forwards (Barcola, Doué, Olise, and Mbappé on Friday night), he asked them to apply intense pressure right into the Ukrainian penalty area. This allowed them to open the scoring quickly, but more importantly, to stifle their opponents, who were nevertheless not lacking in desire. At halftime, Les Bleus were posting 9 shots to 1 and 62% possession.
"The pressing was very effective, we had discussed it before the match and the coach had given us good instructions, and we managed to apply them," reported Bradley Barcola. But the second half went less well. Didier Deschamps and his players mentioned a period of "floating" . There were these two very dangerous chances, with a save from Ibrahima Konaté and a post in the space of two minutes, but the Ukrainian highlight lasted more than twenty minutes.
"Going high up the pitch is very energy-consuming. The attackers made a lot of runs (...). We can't do it all the time," conceded Didier Deschamps, aware that he will have to make adjustments. "Most of them do it at club level, but it requires automatic reflexes. It's a young team that needs repetition, that must also gain experience and clarity," he added.
In terms of results, Les Bleus have just scored at least two goals in four matches (2-0 against Croatia, 4-5 against Spain, 2-0 against Germany and 2-0 against Ukraine), something they haven't done since the 2022 World Cup. They have only had one lapse against Spain since the introduction of the 4-2-3-1 formation with four attacking players. It remains to be seen who will take these positions.
Ousmane Dembélé was on the bench on Friday, a few days after feeling pain in his thigh. He came on as a substitute before being forced off injured, "with a problem in the other thigh," according to Didier Deschamps. Désiré Doué also went off with a knock to his calf. Didier Deschamps will continue his tests against Iceland, the group leaders after their 5-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.
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