A football team is like a duvet: pull some extra cover in one direction and the other is left exposed. It’s a problem Didier Deschamps has regularly wrestled with since he became national manager: how do you squeeze so much talent into a functioning team? He has perhaps the most talented squad at the World Cup, comparable with Brazil, yet Neymar and company slide into their natural 4-3-3 like a well-fitting jumper while France bulge at the seams.
But in a solid if not totally convincing win over Peru in Ekaterinburg, Deschamps found something close to a solution. Initially ITV presented France in the same 4-3-3 formation they started with against Australia, while Fifa’s website offered a 4-2-3-1 setup. In reality, Deschamps started Antoine Griezmann flitting around Olivier Giroud (a substitute against Australia) with Kylian Mbappe shunted wide in a lop-sided 4-4-2.
Mbappe was far more adventurous than Blaise Matuidi on the left, and greeted most of his defensive responsibilities with a shrug, but his nearest central midfielder made up for that. The joke went that Leicester won the title with three in midfield: Danny Drinkwater in the middle and N’Golo Kante either side. Here Kante showed that same mastery for teleportation, playing anchorman, box-to-box midfielder and right-wingback all at once. Against Australia Kante topped ball recoveries (tackles and interceptions) with 13; against Peru he racked up 13 again, and what was most interesting was that for a player supposedly playing in central midfield, nine of those were made wide on the right.
It is hard to know whether Deschamps deliberately deployed Kante towards the right side to protect the vacated space behind Mbappe, but it worked. Mbappe wasn’t particularly interested in defending but making him trot back to his station on the right of midfield had the advantage of giving him a run-up, like twisting a wind-up toy to its absolute limit and letting fly. Kante would win the ball in midfield and suddenly a blue blur was off down the right, joining a rapid counter-attack.
It meant France could attack Peru in a variety of ways. They hit them with fast breaks, they used the more direct route to Giroud, and they worked through Griezmann floating between the lines. That is a difficult array of problems for opponents to contain; pull the duvet one way and the other exposed. Deschamps continues to scratch around for his own solutions, and one might be Kante, a miraculous safety blanket to throw on top.
