Former Algeria coach Christian Gourcuff, who recently retired, has released a book that talks about the evolution of football he has seen over the years. In an interview with Football365, he talks about his time in Algeria and the different approach he had.
Indeed, when asked about the homogenization of world football and the difficulty of building specific styles of play in selection, he will explain that contrary to what he has been able to observe elsewhere in terms of standardization of the game and the players, in Algeria he was lucky to have players sensitive to football like Yacine Brahimi or Riyad Mahrez.
“So with the Algerian team, I saw my job a little differently because I had players who had a fairly specific sensitivity. Yacine Brahimi, Riyad Mahrez… I felt in them this sensitivity of football through which it was possible to build. But that is not common. In the selections, the winning team does its thing but there is no more specificity. Apart from the Spaniards who have kept a little of this sensitivity in their search for possession, everything is standardized. Even if there are flaws, it is the only nation that has retained a footballing identity.
DZfoot
