Why frustrated Anelka is firing blanks
Thursday 17 June 2010 11:55
A month after Aimé Jacquet
decided against including
a precocious young Nicolas Anelka in his final squad for the 1998 World
Cup, L’Équipe went to visit the then Arsenal
striker in Trappes, the town just half an hour outside of Paris he
calls
home.
They found him watching France’s second round match against
Paraguay,
which had the entire nation on the edge of its seat. The game went to
extra-time and was ultimately decided by a strike in the 113th
minute from Le Président himself,
Laurent Blanc.
When asked if
he would like to have been a part of
it, an indifferent looking Anelka apparently replied: “It’s not that I
don’t
care about Les Bleus, but, at some point, you have to say stop.
Otherwise you
spend your life in front of the TV.” Anelka was just 19.
Four years later in 2002, an unconvincing spell
on
loan at Liverpool meant he was overlooked again despite performing well
at the
European Championship in Holland and Belgium. When Jacques Santini
called
Anelka up to replace the injured Sidney Govou in November, he
point-blank
refused, saying that he didn’t want to be ‘a stop-gap’. Anelka later
demanded
that Santini “get on his knees and apologise.”
His international career already appeared to be
over
and under Raymond Domenech it didn’t look like being resurrected as
Anelka was
ignored again in 2006. “I will not watch the World Cup,” he grumbled. “I
feel
Domenech called me back just so I could show my potential. I even
scored. I
think that right from the start, he had no intention of taking me on
board
anyway. I deserved a place.”
However, since November last year when he scored the
winning goal in the first leg of France’s controversial play-off against
the
Republic of Ireland, Anelka has become a pillar of Domenech’s side. In
fact, if
he plays tonight, Anelka will set a personal record of starting eight
consecutive matches for Les Bleus.
Nevertheless, his troubled history with France means
the 31-year-old’s commitment still frequently comes into question.
Wednesday’s L’Équipe even inquired whether Anelka
really considers this summer’s World Cup in South Africa to be the
pinnacle of
his career, it of course being his first.
If Anelka does consider it to be so, why then is he
having so much trouble working for the team as a lone central striker in
both a
4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1 formation? In each of France’s last four matches,
Anelka
has persistently dropped back into midfield to find the ball instead of
maintaining
his position and acting as the reference point for the attack as both
systems
clearly demand.
It’s the sort
of role David Trezeguet excelled in; often disappearing, not playing any part in the build up,
just being
there when the move needed finishing. But Anelka, out of a need to touch
the
ball and feel included, can’t or maybe won’t make it work. The net
result: he
hasn’t recorded any shots on target in his last four matches and Les
Bleus are
struggling for goals.
“A
centre-forward must call for the ball to be
played deep and get on the end of crosses like Miroslav Klose did on
Philipp
Lahm’s ball for Germany’s second goal against Australia,” explained Bixente
Lizarazu, left back of the great side of 1998 and 2000.
“Anelka does what he wants. He does what he
likes.
He will play the same match in whatever position you put him. If you put
him at
right-back, he would still play as a false nine.”
Statistics from France’s opening game against
Uruguay last Friday show that Anelka received the ball just once in the
opposition penalty area, but collected it 13 times around the half-way
line.
Luis Fernandez, his former coach at Paris-Saint Germain, claims this is
indicative of the fact Anelka has never liked playing on his own up
front.
“He grows frustrated very
quickly in this position
and rapidly ‘unhooks’ himself from the attack to find the ball. In
Paris, with
Jean-Louis Gasset, they were always saying to him: ‘Call out to the
wings for the
ball, then move, and ask for it in the box’. He didn’t want to. He
always
wanted to touch the ball.” Anelka’s apparent reluctance to play any
other way
supposedly led one former France manager to believe he didn’t like
football at
the highest level because of its emphasis on executing tactics to the
letter,
restricting his freedom of expression.
However, as Roger Lemerre’s former assistant René
Girard countered: “It’s difficult to say that a player who is a regular
at
Chelsea with an Italian coach doesn’t like constraints.” World Cup
winner
Christophe Dugarry also believes Anelka has no problem playing as a lone
striker, as he used to do everything required of him in that role when
Zinedine
Zidane asked him to do so; the implication being that there currently
isn’t an
authority figure within the French camp.
Of course, all the blame for France’s problems up
front shouldn’t be left squarely on Anelka’s shoulders, even if his
record at
international level stands at only one goal every 300 minutes. Domenech
has
lined up seven different attacks in his last 12 matches, preventing his
strikers from developing an understanding of each other’s movements and
responsibilities.
It’s likely to
be different again tonight against
Mexico even though Domenech will persist with the 4-2-3-1 he used
against
Uruguay. Thierry Henry looks set to return to the starting XI as
France’s
central striker, but Anelka won’t be dropped. Instead, he’ll move to the
right-hand side where he featured regularly during qualifying, taking
the place
of Sidney Govou
Anelka’s
Chelsea team-mate Florent Malouda is
certain to be back after his spat with Domenech last week. He will play
on the
left-hand side, meaning Franck Ribéry moves into the hole behind Henry
at the
expense of Yoann Gourcuff, undoubtedly the biggest casualty of France’s
recent
travails.
Expected
France line-up (4-2-3-1):
Lloris; Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra; Toulalan, Diaby; Anelka, Ribéry,
Malouda;
Henry.
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About James Horncastle
European Football Writer, Fox Soccer and FourFourTwo Columnist, Guest Podder on Guardian Football Weekly, contributor to The Blizzard, Champions, WSC and more