A second defeat in seven months and always against Germany, each time in a friendly match. Enough to offend Didier Deschamps, invited to a press conference this Saturday evening in Lyon after the setback against the Germans (0-2) at Groupama Stadium. The national coach blamed the general fatigue of his players which would explain their general apathy.
We did not recognize the France team. What happened ?
DIDIER DESCHAMPS. I can make the same observation. We were not able to rise to the level that the opponent proposed, in terms of aggressiveness, of determination. Germany had a very good match, had quality. We didn’t put in what we needed. Were we capable of it? This is the question I ask myself. The international level is ruthless. Germany gave us a match with high intensity. We reacted after the first quarter of an hour but it was intermittent. You have to accept it even if it doesn’t feel good. It’s a reminder. The first person to blame is me.
Is it a physical problem?
Maybe… It’s not one of our usual caliber matches. This can be individual or collective. We didn’t have the means for various reasons. Explanations could become excuses. The whole group arrived very tired. I didn’t want to take any risks with certain players. Compared to what Germany has proposed to us, this is not going in the right direction.
Can being upgraded do any good for the future?
I’m not worried. If it takes a slap to make things go well afterwards… It’s always good to have difficulties. We had quite a few, I could say too many. We were less determined than usual in our intentions. There is power and will. We could do a little less this time.
“If Griezmann had been there, it wouldn’t have changed everything”
Were you orphans of Antoine Griezmann?
I didn’t need this match to know that. If he had been there, given the number of losses, it wouldn’t have changed everything. But he is an essential pawn.
How do you judge Warren Zaire-Emery’s performance?
I don’t want to judge the players individually given everything we missed collectively. Warren didn’t have his best game with us, that depends on him but also on the players around him. Having play time is important. There may have been psychological relaxation, in addition to physical fatigue. However, we had some good training during the week.
Adrien Rabiot highlighted the gaps in the state of mind. Do you agree ?
I know Adrien, he talks about aggression and determination. On the first goal, we were very passive. We were not up to par in that regard.
