France 98 WC winners!

[Ellandroadhero]

So, this is my first ever recreation. It may crash and burn, but I wanted to give it a go! The 98' World Cup was one of my first ever real football memories so the French winners seemed like the perfect team to try!

Here's what I'm going for: 

http://spielverlagerung.com/2016/01/04/1998-world-cup-final-france-brazil-30/

This is how they lined up in the final. In the group stages Henry played and gave them more width, but I think this is the most interesting tactic to try and replicate, so I will be sticking with the one formation.

Some have described this as a 4321, some a 451, some a 4312 due to Djorkaeff getting forward alongside Guivarc'h as a striker. I've decided that it's a 4321 as pictured, with Djorkaeff playing as an SS. 

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Structure: 

Formation as above. 

Mentality: 

I found this the most difficult aspect as I think this was dependent on the game. In the group stages they were dominant, controlling the ball and winning 3-0, 4-0 and 2-1, before in the knockout stages scraping through on golden goal against Paraguay, penalties against Italy and 2-1 against Croatia. They won the final 3-0 against Brazil, with two famous Zidane headers coming from corners and Petit scoring on the breakaway whilst Brazil piled on the pressure. All that being said, I've decided to go with a standard mentality. Perhaps control might have been the way forwards, but I felt that the knockout stages don't replicate that mentality and I will address this by adding a slightly higher defensive line in the base tactic and change it depending on opponents. 

Shape: 

Very fluid. This team attacked and defended as one unit with the defence often beginning attacks and desailly in particular moving forwards with the ball. The midfield and centre forward were expected to fulfil their roles in winning the ball back as well. 

TI's: 

Push higher up, play out of defence, shorter passing.  

I tried to find possession stats but struggled, but I thought that short passing made sense in controlling the game, with a standard mentality. However, I didn't want it too short because I didn't want to restrict quick attacks from happening, so I left the tempo on normal, which on very fluid means the ball will still be moved quickly. 

Push higher up and play out of defence is there to try and imitate the defence squeezing the play and joining and starting attacks. 

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The starting line up: 

GK: Barthez - he's got to be a Sweeper Keeper! He was known for charging off his line like a crazy man. I toyed with attack duty, but that seemed a litte too far, so went support. 

RB: Thuram - WB attack. He scored his only two international goals in this tournament as he was expected to get high up the pitch to provide width.

CBs: Desailly and Blanc. BPD- D. Two incredible, strong centre backs, capable of bringing the ball forward from the back. They only conceded twice in in the tournament, so they need to be exceptional defensively. 

LB: Lizarazu - WB support. Again needs to provide width, but I felt a support duty was better for him. I gave him a cross from byline TI additionally. 

LCM: Petit - CM support. I toyed with BBM for him and may still change to that. CM seemed right though as he needs to be able to do everything. I've given him the get further forward TI as well. 

CM: Deschamps - BWM D. Cantona famously described him as the water carrier. His job is to win the ball and play a simple pass off to his fellow midfielders. 

RCM: Karembeu - Carrilero. The perfect role playing in midfield with Thuram surging past, he needs to be able to shuttle out wide to support in defence. 

AMCL: Zidane - AP attack The key attacking player. He could have been a Treq, but Zidane actually got very involved in winning balls back, so that didn't seem right. Instead I gave him roam and more direct passing PI's as I want him to be the player that gets most of our assists. 

AMCR: Djorkaeff - SS. His role is to get beyond the striker and get on the end of through balls. 

ST: Guivarc'h. DLF support. This was a difficult one as he can be thought of as a target man, but he actually got himself into some good scoring positions and fluffed his lines. One tactical analysis I read said to think of him as 'a poor striker in a great team.' I toyed with complete forward support as well as target man but decided to settle on DLF support so that his main role will be playing others in, but he may still get chances of his own. 

Here's how it looks:

 

Now, onto qualification! I will report back as things develop. I'd love to get any comments as I always want to learn!

[Ellandroadhero]

Played the first couple of qualifiers and made a few tweaks. I must admit to playing the first game against the Netherlands twice to try and get the structure right. Standard, very fluid was not working well at all, it was way too fast and attacking, so I decided instead to go for control mentality with flexible shape which worked much better. 

Also I made a couple of player and role changes and went for Benzema as the DLF against Netherlands (both goals in a 2-0 win) and Pogba as an AP S in the Zidane role and Tolliso as Petit. 

Against Sweden I was struggling at 1-0 down and I changed Benzema for Giroud as a TM s and that allowed both Griezmann and Matuidi to score by running off him. Unfortunately I conceded again to a free kick so drew that game 2-2. I want to see Griezmann running through more often as that's what Djorkaeff did, so I'm going to try that to start in the next game. 

 

 

[Ellandroadhero]

So - we've qualified top of the group, only conceding twice against Sweden, but certainly not scoring buckets full of goals as we scraped past both Bulgaria and Belarus. In both games we absolutely dominated but they defended extremely deep and we weren't clinical. Hoping this will bring more goals as it goes on, although the 98 WC winners themselves were not free flowing in the latter stages of the tournament and scored most of their goals in the group stages, where they played wider with Thierry Henry in the side. 

I've been pleased that my SS scored again (this time Ben Yedder as Grizou was injured) but one thing I've not been happy about so far has been replicating Zidane. This was always going to be hard to replicate such a player. Pogba is doing well in his role and getting good ratings, but he's not been involved in goals so far. 

Onto friendlies now leading up to the tournament itself. 

[Ellandroadhero]

Played all my friendlies and forgot to update. The Christmas tree formation was terrible against weaker sides. They packed the defence and I just couldn't get through. I put wingbacks on attacking and tried several other things to no avail and ended up with disappointing draws or narrow wins. Thus I decided that i'd have to create a 4231 like France used against weaker opponents in the group stages. 

Thomas Lemar is my Thierry Henry here, attacking from the left inside forward. I hope this will make the difference. 

Next update will be the group stage results!

[Ellandroadhero]

RUSSIA 2018: 

So, here goes! After some disappointing friendlies against some weaker sides, I realised I had to develop France's other tactic to bring some width in and initially developed a 4321. As you'll see in a moment, this was vital to our getting through the group stage. 

We were drawn against Belgium (gulp), Colombia and Australia, so certainly a challenging group and fortunately we were able to come through top. We lined up in our christmas tree formation against both Belgium and Colombia and went 1-0 up through Laccazette in both (not strictly a player like Guivarc'h, but he's the best dlf in the squad) only to lose the lead each time. So, two games down and only 2 points on the board, but in such a tight group, this still gave me the possibility for first place. 

Coming up against the Aussies I decided to utilise my 4231 with my 'Henry', Thomas Lemar. I also took some advice below in dropping the midfield into 2 DMs (anchor and seg) and put Pogba as an AP attack from CM. This turned out to be the match winning decision as Pogba, in far more space than he'd had in any of my previous games, finally flourished as my 'Zidane,' scoring twice and picking up MOM with a 9.0 rating. Meanwhile, Belgium and Colombia fought out a 4-3 thriller and I topped the group on GD. Onwards to the second round and Wales! 

 

2nd round: 

Sensational is the only way to describe it. Wales lined up with their whole team in their own half apart from their centre forward, which I thought might be a struggle, but Pogba and Lemar put them to the sword with Pogba controlling the game and Lemar scoring twice. Wales were never in the game and we look great as potential tournament winners now.

 

 

[Ellandroadhero]

Quarter finals vs Romania: 

I expected this to be against Argentina, but a rearguard action of the highest order repelled Messi and co and Romani find themselves in the quarter finals against all odds. Here's how they lined up.

As you can see, absolute nightmare. I went with the 4231 as the central areas are packed. Laccazette was out injured and a couple of players are exhausted so I had to make a few changes. What happened was an absolute kick in the knackers. 

 

 

We go crashing out after an early mistake from Koscielny cost us dear. The one thing I couldn't do in this game was go behind. We threw the kitchen sink at Romania but they clung on. The possession stats are skewed as we played desperately for the last 20 minutes. I'm gutted as I think we would have been favourites in the latter stages and I was looking forward to testing the Christmas tree in the semi final and final. Oh, well, my first tactical recreation ends in failure, but  I think I was managing to get the style across quite well.

If you wondered, Spain beat Romania (!) 1-0 AET in the final and I was sacked.

[kidthekid]

Great thread. This one is certainly unique as many replication threads focus on more recent and popular managers. Not saying they are bad, as they are all great, but it's nice to see something different.

[Ellandroadhero]

Thanks! I’ll update tomorrow hopefully as I’ve finally had time to actually get onto the WC itself after a busy weekend! I’m not sure it’s going to be successful as friendlies against weaker sides were a real disappointment. I decided to use a 4231 against weaker sides to create more chances as France did in the group stages where they won by large margins. Smaller teams defend too compactly for the Christmas tree I think! Unless I’m missing a way to create more space with it of course. 

[Ellandroadhero]

Updated.

[ajsr1982]

15 hours ago, Ellandroadhero said:

Thanks! I’ll update tomorrow hopefully as I’ve finally had time to actually get onto the WC itself after a busy weekend! I’m not sure it’s going to be successful as friendlies against weaker sides were a real disappointment. I decided to use a 4231 against weaker sides to create more chances as France did in the group stages where they won by large margins. Smaller teams defend too compactly for the Christmas tree I think! Unless I’m missing a way to create more space with it of course. 

There's certainly something in this. Paraguay and Italy made life very hard for France in the knockout stages, and of course they were nearly undone by Croatia and needed Thuram to bail them out.

I think smaller teams have gotten a lot better at organising themselves these days, and this formation really does make it difficult to create space and movement. 

What you might try is to drop your midfield back a little. This might be nuts but you could get away with it against smaller teams. You might have an Anchorman and two Segundo Volantes in the DM strata, and then maybe a RPM and a Mezzala in front.

[cez]

have you tried using TIs roam from positions, be more expressive, play wider and maybe very fluid for the 4321 formation? you said it's weak against weeker teams who pack the defence so maybe that would stretch them out a bit? 

[Ellandroadhero]

I’ll have a play around. Thanks! 

[Ellandroadhero]

Group stage update coming when my twin daughters stop crying! Spoiler alert, we topped a difficult group with 5 points on GD. The final match with the 4231 was the clincher as I won 4-0! 

[Ellandroadhero]

Post 5 updated.

[Ellandroadhero]

Posts 5 and 6 updated to finish this recreation. Safe to say I didn't get the same result.

[blehq12]

20 years later ...