Blanc: France must rediscover lost values
Reuters - Wednesday 01 September 2010, 16:41
PARIS - New France coach Laurent Blanc has
told his players they must rediscover the values that once made
them a proud and respected outfit as they prepare for a Euro
2012 qualifying campaign beginning against Belarus on Friday.
Zinedine Zidane attended training on Wednesday and in the
inspiration behind France's 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000
triumphs Blanc could hardly have found a more potent symbol of
the qualities he is looking for.
The coach, who took over from Raymond Domenech after the
World Cup fiasco, will eagerly look for signs of a fresh start
in his first two competitive matches, against Belarus at Stade
de France on Friday and Bosnia four days later in Sarajevo.
Obviously, Blanc wants clear improvement from France's
dismal displays on their way to a group-stage exit from the
World Cup and has enough talent in his squad to expect that.
But the most important thing, Blanc said, was for the
players to understand what it meant to wear France's colours.
"The France team is not as essential to the players as it
used to be and that has to change, otherwise there will always
be problems," Blanc told reporters.
"To be able to exchange with players of another generation
can only help," he added. "They can explain that despite having
had an extraordinary career at club level, the thing that
changed their lives was to play for France. That's a spirit the
young players need to recapture."
Blanc, a world champion alongside Zidane in 1998, picked
none of the World Cup squad for his first game in charge, a 2-1
friendly defeat by Norway last month in which France looked
naive but full of enthusiasm.
For the upcoming qualifiers the coach has welcomed back nine
players who were in South Africa, where France boycotted a
training session in support of Nicolas Anelka after the striker
was sent home for insulting Domenech.
Anelka, who was banned for 18 matches for his behaviour at
the World Cup, will probably never play for France again, and a
few others who escaped with milder bans, such as World Cup
captain Patrice Evra, play no role in Blanc's immediate plans.
Blanc, however, cannot start from scratch, even though he is
taking some risks with a handful of uncapped players on his
list, among them promising young striker Kevin Gameiro.
"To have a young team is a good thing but it's not enough to
be competitive at the highest level," Blanc told reporters.
"We tried to come up with a mixture of talented youngsters and
more experienced players who can guide them."
REMAIN HUMBLE
The new coach knows that France, who have dropped out of the
top 20 in the FIFA rankings, have work to do before recapturing
their place in the world's elite and must now remain humble even
before facing the likes of Belarus and Bosnia.
They could do worse than look as an example to Zidane, who
watched training on Wednesday before playing a game of
soccer-tennis with a team made up of members of the staff and
then had lunch with the players and chaired a meeting.
Zidane himself was discreet as usual and did not say much
but the fact that the retired maestro won more acclaim than the
current players during the public training session was a
reminder that France have a long way to go.
Belarus coach Bernd Stange has been in confident mood, given
the rebuilding work Blanc is faced with.
"I think that we have a good chance at the Stade de France,"
he told reporters. "The French are assembling a new team and it
will take some time.
"France will be extremely motivated after their fiasco in
South Africa so we have to be ready for that."
Stange said midfielder Alexander Hleb, who signed a one-year
loan deal with English Premier League club Birmingham City this
week after a disappointing spell at Barcelona, was not
guaranteed a place in the starting line-up.
"Hleb hasn't played much recently, he just trained at
Barcelona and it's not enough," Stange said.
Probable line-ups:
France: Hugo Lloris; Bacary Sagna, Adil Rami, Philippe
Mexes, Gael Clichy; Jeremy Menez, Abou Diaby, Alou Diarra,
Florent Malouda; Guillaume Hoarau, Loic Remy.
Belarus: Anton Amelchenko; Alexander Martynovich, Igor
Shitov, Sergei Sosnovsky, Sergei Omelyanchuk; Yan Tigorev,
Alexander Kulchy, Alexander Hleb, Vyacheslav Hleb; Sergei
Kornilenko, Vitali Kutuzov.
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