Former France international Christophe Dugarry has strongly criticised current players for expressing a preference for Zinedine Zidane's style of play since Didier Deschamps' departure. He believes these criticisms come too late and that the squad should have spoken up during the former manager's 14-year tenure.
A charge of hypocrisy
Dugarry pointed to what he sees as hypocrisy. He recalled that for years, poor performances were excused by positive results. "We didn't have many people speaking out about the quality of the play, we were told: 'But we're winning, we don't care about the quality of the play!'" he said. For him, the time to speak was after defeats like the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina or the Euro 2024 semi-final against Spain.
The former striker was unequivocal. "These players who are speaking out now, they should have done it against Argentina where for 80 minutes we didn't see the ball," he stated. He added that if players thought the game plan was bad, they should have gone to discuss it with the coach at the time.
The current context for Les Bleus
These comments come as the France team, under new management, has a recent record of three wins, one draw and one loss from its last five matches. The most recent was a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Belgium on October 5th, featuring a brace from Michael Olise. Captain Kylian Mbappé remains the top scorer this season with ten goals. The squad is seeking to build a new identity, and the style debate initiated by players remains a hot topic.
Background and full detail: RMC Sport
