France

[BigMac]

What the fuck have happened to France?

Only a few years ago these guys were World and European Champions and a force to be reckoned with.

Now they are a team that lack alot of confidence and play terrible football. Over these Euros France have been very poor and even in the qualifications they got beat by Scotland twice.

Knowone gets beat by Scotland once, but twice is unbelievable lol

Their manager looked so hopeless and lifeless, lets face it on paper they are a pretty good team with alot of quality.

However they obviously don't bond anymore, there is no inspiration in the team.

They obviously miss Zidane alot!

[Adi]

They obviously miss Zidane alot!

That's the main reason.

Secondly, their manager is a twat. Most of the French supporters want him out as soon as possible. It's obvious that he'll be given the boot after this EURO. A new manager and the right call ups should fix the issue for France. I don't know if they'll ever get back to their glory days, but they should at least be a team that consistently gets into the quarters and semis.

[emogirl]

Zidane is gone, Thuram is gone... Pires, Viera... Too many people are missing... I'm not saying that they should be brought back though, no.

[Sule]

raymond domenech is a retard,

y did he take off Nasri against Italy and also he kept on putting on that dumbass Gomis guy who scored 1 GOAL in a friendly be4 Euro

[Adi]

The Nasri decision was a 50-50 for me. He wanted to keep his two strikers on so someone needed to be sacrificed for a defender to come on. For me it was either Nasri or Toululan. Toululan appears to be a more well-rounded player, although I'm not too impressed with him either. You probably want someone who can do the job on the attacking and defending side when you are a man down.

[cigar omar]

Remember 02? They will bounce back trust me. Although they do miss Zizu.

[sputnik]

LOL i saw on a prematch talk before a France game that the coach chooses his players by zodiac shit O.O he doesnt like Leos etc etc. what the fuck? what. a. jack. ass.

[zizou871]

Lack of experience from the new players because all the old players continue to play.  They did need Vieira this tournament.  Toulalan played too much like Makelele  Vieira would have gotten involved in the attack more.  Malouda is shit.  I have never seen him play as well as he is made out to be.  Don't know why Chelsea bought him last year.  Maybe he played well in France.  Gomis was a bad decision to bring.  Anelka was awful.  There really isn't anyone to partner Henry up top except Benzema, who like all the younger players lack experience at this level so he wasn't all that great. 

Plus they are just so damn unlucky.  That free kick by Italy.  Come on.  Abidal shouldn't have been playing in the center of the defense.  Thuram wasn't playing too terribly and he might've done better in the situation where Abidal was sent off.  It was just an awful tournament for France.  Same as Germany and Italy in 04

[Sule]

Good point about the experience. Raymond makes it look like he just wants to keep all the old black guys in the d and mid and not let the younger kids come through.

NEW COACH time

[zizou871]

yeah i think it is time for a new coach.  Lassana Diarra looked really good in the FA cup final and I'm surprised he didn't get any time.  I would have preferred him over Toulalan but he got the start all three games

[TheGodEmperor]

Aging players, with not enough young talent compared to Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, and other top countries

[Buckwheat156]

dont think its aging players italy won the WC with old players and experience really does make the difference. some teams have bad tournaments and thats what happened to france. they were brilliant in WC 06 but terrible at this tournament. not to mention they were in the group of death where anything can happen