[article] Domenech 'worried' for France

thejollyrodger

Domenech 'worried' for France
by Patrick Haond - Last Updated 9 Sep 2004
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France coach Raymond Domenech was left frustrated by his team's display in the 2-0 win against Faroe Islands, questioning whether some of his squad are up to international standard at the moment.

The below-par performance was the result of a lack of effort, according to Domenech who felt his players should have been better prepared for a battle against the minnows.

Jacques Santini's replacement is also concerned that Patrick Vieira's suspension rules him out of the Stade de France encounter with Republic of Ireland.

"We got three points and, after watching the first quarter of an hour, it is very nice!" he said afterwards.


"We need more determination to prepare for the other matches.

"If we can't reply to the physical fight, we can never show any of our technical game. I am worried.

"An international match deserves more effort than that. With their qualities, the Faroes sometimes showed us what an international match is."

Domenech admits he was worried after Vieira's dismissal as the Bleus captain will be sorely missed against Eire.

"When Patrick Vieira was sent off, I immediately thought of the match against Ireland in one month," he confessed.

"It didn't help to play with ten men and it won't help to play without him in a month.

"I was afraid after the first quarter of an hour. I was afraid in the second half when we were down to ten men and leading 1-0.

"We can't say, in those moments, we had complete serenity.

"We were in difficulty in too many areas.

"We have to scrape together what we can to find players so, if we have to change those players too, I don't know what we will do.

"We can see that even in those kind of matches, international-level players cannot be built in one day.

"Now I have, above all, one month to worry.

"The only interesting and positive thing is all the internationals will play a lot more now."

thejollyrodger

Sounds like a bit of good news. I reckon the French wont improve that much in four weeks time.

err... maybe neither will we :eek: :eek:

midget lord

in current form i reckon we will beat them.

Big Nelly

Even wit the mess they are in they are a world class team......hoping for a draw! cant see us winning in Paris altough with recent turn outs for the French games there will be prob more Irish fans there!!

super_furry

Best, I think, we can hope for is a draw. I just can't see Kerr letting the team off the leash to have a real go at them. We'll play it cagey and hope to catch them on the break.

BaZmO*

super_furry wrote:

Best, I think, we can hope for is a draw. I just can't see Kerr letting the team off the leash to have a real go at them. We'll play it cagey and hope to catch them on the break.

Yeah definitely! I think the most important thing do against the French is to make it as difficult as possible for them to play, i.e. closing them down as a unit as quick as possible, breaking up their continuity and passing game.

When Henry was interviewed after the Croatian game at Euro 2004 he was complaining that teams don't let France play their style of football. Bit of a naive thing to say for a seasoned professional, but it does prove the point that if you do get at them they are more liable not to perform.

The worst thing we could do is to play an open attacking style of play cos a team of France's quality would destroy us tbh!
The best we could realistically hope for is a draw, but if we were really really lucky and things went our way on the day, maybe just maybe we could...........well I won't tempt fate!!!

B.

Big Ears

'going into injury time at the Stade de France both sets of fans could only stare in amazement at the scoreboard : Irlande 5-0 France . '

Well hopefully .

JohnnyBravo

midget lord wrote:

in current form i reckon we will beat them.

YOu obviously didnt see the swizerland game then

Big Ears

JohnnyBravo wrote:

YOu obviously didnt see the swizerland game then

You obviously didn't see either French game .

mr_angry

Hopefully we'll see a performance from Ireland like the ones against Holland a couple of years ago. Up against the odds, we've always performed pretty well. Here's hoping.

thejollyrodger

In fairness I think Ireland always performs on the big stage against a bigger team. We will be well in it for sure and I cant see us loosing. A win for us may be on the cards but kerr has a lot of work to do with the team.

___________________Given

Finnan________O Brien_____Cunningham____O Shea

Reid________Miller/Holland_______Keane_____Duff

___________Clinton_______Robbie Keane

eirebhoy

I was listening to Jonny Giles last night and he said he used to play with someone at Leeds who didn't believe in playing for a draw or just for pride, he was out there to win every game. The one player that came into my head was Mr. Graham Kavanagh, he has to play in Paris. Someone like Kavanagh doesn't perform worse away from home or better at Lansdowne, he's never intimidated. I've said this a couple of times but I really hope Kerr try's to treat this game as a home game and our fans will definitely play their part.

No offence to Arsenal but its there players who just don't perform for France. Vieira, Henry and Pires only put in half as much for France as they do for Arsenal. If we play to our potential we could match the French in midfield and hopefuly keep the pressure off the defence.

Drag00n79

I understand everyone's optimism about the French match but tbh I would be delighted with a draw in Paris.

PHB

Ah now Kavanagh will just be utterly outclassed by France, doesn't matter if hes not intimidated.

It would be better to play Reid or Miller or somebody with the skill at higher levels.
I'd like Miller in the middle as he has got a bit of pace on him which will help out vs. france, who have the fastest players everr

thejollyrodger

we have a very good chance of a draw. I think Henry will play crap against us and so too will Pires.

Big Ears

PHB wrote:

Ah now Kavanagh will just be utterly outclassed by France, doesn't matter if hes not intimidated.

It would be better to play Reid or Miller or somebody with the skill at higher levels.
I'd like Miller in the middle as he has got a bit of pace on him which will help out vs. france, who have the fastest players everr

those players aren't exactly the most consistent , at they're best they are both better than Kavanagh , but we don't exactly see them perform to they're best all the time do we ? .

Kavanagh always plays the same and you know what you're gonna get .

eirebhoy

PHB wrote:

Ah now Kavanagh will just be utterly outclassed by France, doesn't matter if hes not intimidated.

He's better than Kilbane, he actually plays the match which puts him ahead of Holland and whatever about being outclassed, Miller is no better. I agree Miller has all the potential in the world but if Kavanagh was 24 and Miller was 30, Kav would be rated higher. Miller has started no more than 10 matches for Celtic and ManU in central midfield while Kav has played over 300 matches in said position (including over 30 premiership matches).

I really doubt Kerr will drop Holland though.