Didier Deschamps’ Pragmatism Puts France In The Final
“I prefer to lose with this Belgium than win with that France.” Eden Hazard may be an aesthete, but he is not a World Cup finalist.
Didier Deschamps, the master pragmatist, set up his France team perfectly and became the first to keep a clean sheet against an explosive Belgium in this World Cup, winning 1–0 Tuesday in Saint Petersburg.
France executed their plan flawlessly, keeping the combined attacking genius of Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne, and Romelu Lukaku quiet for 90 minutes. Belgium struggled to cope with France’s defensive shape and Roberto Martinez will probably have a lot of questions to answer about his team’s inability to get the most out of his best players today.
Formations —
France lined up in their typical 4–2–3–1 and Belgium, at least on paper, would do the same. In possession Belgium moved to what looked more like a 3–2–4–1 with Hazard hugging the touchline out left and Chadli pushing very high up on the right.
Key Factors:
French Counterattack —
France were happy to sit back and counter attack, and with the speed of Mbappe and the threat posed by Belgium’s main attacking trident it’s easy to see why. Eden Hazard can complain all he’d like about their style, but it worked very well.
Something I saw a lot of was Antoine Griezmann floating between the lines always staying close to Kante. Kante is the best defensive player on the pitch and the likeliest to pick a pass off. This makes for an easy 10 yard pass to Griezmann who can launch it long and let Giroud to hold it up for others to rush in, or for Mbappe to bear down on goal.
Hazard —
France managed to isolate Eden Hazard consistently. Hazard completed 10 dribbles but only managed to get two passes into the box. Every time the Belgian back three would get the ball, Pavard would move up on Hazard and Mbappe or Giroud would step into the passing lane, forcing the ball back to the right side of the field.
For example look at these two situations Hazard found himself in.
In the first picture Hazard is forced into backward pass, in the second he brilliantly skins Benjamin Pavard and gallops down the touchline until he’s crowded out and forced to dribble out for a goal kick. France made it near impossible for the best player on the field to find his near equally talented teammates.
Meunier Suspension —
The loss of Thomas Meunier due to card accumulation hurt Belgium badly. His replacement, Nacer Chadli, saw much more than the ball than he would have expected and was forced into playing 80 passes, 29 more than Hazard on the opposite side of the field. Chadli’s passing was 94%, but 60 of those 81 passes went backwards. France were happy to let him have the ball given his relative lack of danger and Kevin de Bruyne was forced to come over and help rather than getting in more dangerous positions towards the middle of the field. Take a look at their respective heat maps.
Chadli:
de Bruyne:
They’re occupying much of the same space and de Bruyne’s influence on the game is greatly reduced due to Chadli’s constant inability to get him the ball.
If Meunier had player perhaps de Bruyne would have played in central midfield as he did against Japan and often does for Manchester City. This would have allowed for him to pick out long vertical passes and stretch the French defense, forcing them to cope with the speed of Hazard and Lukaku.
The central midfield that Belgium did put out of Axel Witsel and Mousa Dembele offered good protection for the back three, but zero in the way of transition play forward. Witsel, the more attack minded of the two only played 28 of his 60 passes forward. Dembele had even less influence, only playing a total of 29 passes.
Fellaini —
Marouane Fellaini is a blunt instrument. He made a big impact in the comeback win against Japan because Belgium decided to go with the tried and true “hoof it to the big man”, and while that can be an excellent Plan B, it isn’t entirely clear what the hope was starting him as a number 10 today. He would drop deep to collect the ball and then pass it sideways. He would drift out wide and, in the words of Jonathan Liew in The Independent “loaf uselessly.” He would occasionally challenge for a header, coming close once to getting it on target, but he was also at fault for the goal when he allowed Samuel Umtiti to beat him to a header at the near post which ultimately made the difference in the game.
As an avowed Marouane Fellaini hater, I was a bit worried after the last two games and thought I might be forced to reevaluate whether or not I was wrong about him. Today proved that I am not.
Looking Forward To The Final —
France will have to be the favorite against either England or Croatia. They can cut you to pieces on the break, and while certainly less enjoyable for some(Eden Hazard), they can also put on a defensive masterclass like they did today. Both England and Croatia have players who can hurt you, but France has more.
