Questions raised about France after disappointing showing

All the things about France that make it attractive — its individual talent and its youth — are also its weaknesses, and tbey were certainly on display on Saturday in Kazan.

Les Bleusedged Australia, 2-1, but they needed VAR to award them their first goal scored by Antoine Griezmann from the penalty kick and a deflected shot for the winning goal that was given to PaulPogba. French defender Samuel Umtiti gifted the Socceroos a penalty kick six minutes after Griezmann’s goal.

It wasn’t France’s best performance, but they got the 3 points anyways.

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After an excellent opening five minutes, France quickly ran out of ideas, which isnot a new issue. It is loaded with two or three quality players at just about every position, but it lacks someone to pull the strings in midfield. Pogba likes to consider himself a No. 10, but theFrench team is not set up to use him in that role.

Coach Didier Deschamps has tried numerous combinations up front — three players across the frontline, two in the middle and twowide, two up front and one behind them, like he started on against Australia — without finding a group that looked comfortable working together.

Les Bleus depend too much on theindividual movements of their players. Against the USA in Lyon, France fired off 19 shots, but most were from distance. Against Australia, it finished with just six shots on target and only two in thesecond half — the two goals.

Deschamps’ frustration with 21-year-old Ousmane Dembele and Griezmann was apparent as he pulled them in the 71st minute. French already depend heavilyon 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe, and he wasn’t any better,

The French press ripped the performances of the attacking trio. Here are some of the grades that came out right after thegame:

L’Equipe: Griezmann 3, Mbappe 3, Dembele 3.
FranceFootball: Griezmann 3, Mbappe 4, Dembele 2.
Le Parisien: Griezmann 4.5, Mbappe 4, Dembele 4.
Le Figaro: Griezmann 4.5, Mbappe 4, Dembele 3.

The consensus was that Dembele, who started ahead of Olivier Giroud, was useless, and Griezmannwas shockingly quiet.

What was disappointing wasn’t how little they sought out each other but how little they sought out the ball themselves. A sign, perhaps, of their youthful nerves –both Mbappe and Dembele were making their World Cup debuts — but conformation that Deschamps has tons of work ahead of him molding Les Bleus into a team.