Zinedine Zidane makes tactical changes to France team despite narrow victory against Turkey

For a coach who says he is "in the continuity" of what was done under Didier Deschamps, Zinédine Zidane still made a lot of changes in this France team, victorious 1-0 in Turkey for its first match, Friday September 25. Quite a bit in the men, but ultimately more in their positioning, with satisfaction but also other points to work on.

Of the 11 players lined up from the start on Friday evening, only three were not regular starters with Didier Deschamps: Rayan Cherki, Maxence Lacroix (who benefits in particular from the packages of William Saliba and Ibrahima Konaté) and Adrien Truffert, who had his second selection four years after the first, in a left-back position where Zinédine Zidane wishes to renew the players, without Theo Hernandez and Lucas Digne.

If offensively, Zinédine Zidane "gives freedom to the players" and he wants "the players to also take their responsibilities", in the words of Esteban Lepaul to TF1, it is especially defensively that the new coach had given high pressure instructions. Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and even Rayan Cherki actively participated, but it was not always very effective, when the Turks managed to play behind the back on several occasions, on the counterattack. However, it was from a high recovery that Kylian Mbappé's goal came.

"When we lose the ball, we try to recover it quickly. We kept a team balance throughout the match. There are some adjustments to make, certainly a lot, but it was good on the part of everyone", underlined Zinédine Zidane at a press conference.

Positioned in midfield, but focused on the offensive, Rayan Cherki was omnipresent. However, his slightly high positioning sometimes exposed Manu Koné in front of the hinge, who was solid and who was covered by a very vigilant Mike Maignan. “Manu, it's not a position he's used to playing in, but I wanted to see that side. He was very good, especially in his balance, and he recovered a lot of balls,” congratulated the coach.

“Totally different things” to assimilate

Offensively, the France team was not flamboyant against Turkey, and its players complained about a pitch that did not help them. It went from a system with four attackers, during the World Cup, to three attackers, who often had difficulty finding each other. Ousmane Dembélé, positioned on the right by Didier Deschamps, occupied the forefront of the attack, as at PSG. “I felt very good,” said the Parisian on TF1, but in a few actions, he sometimes lacked a blue presence in the area. Michael Olise is still the accelerator of the French offensive game. He already has automatisms with Jules Koundé on the right and it is from their side that the danger mainly comes.

Because on the other side, on the left, Kylian Mbappé did not look happy to be shifted while he was playing up front under the orders of Didier Deschamps. With Adrien Truffert, the two men logically lacked automatisms, and the captain failed to make a difference with his speed or dribbling against a five-man defense. But he managed to score when he found himself in a favorable situation.