Didier Deschamps doesn’t run France as a talent show. He captained the country to the 1998 World Cup, coached it to the 2018 title, took it to three major finals across 14 years, and built his reputation on order before decoration.
Asked by The Guardian whether placing Kylian Mbappé through the middle is an experiment, he had an answer. “I must be stupid,” he said. “It’s been three years that he has played in a central position.”
The experiment has long expired.
The club record settled the argument
At Real Madrid this past season, Mbappé finished with 42 goals in 44 matches, including 15 in the Champions League. Numbers like that don’t dissolve every tactical question. But they corroborate the Frenchman’s No. 9 role, even if his preference is on the left.
The cost from wing to central striker is still worth noting. From the left, Mbappé receives facing play and can punish a fullback with the whole field in front of him. Through the middle, he’s crowded sooner, forced to connect in tighter spaces, arriving between center-backs before he can build any momentum. Deschamps accepts that cost. The reward is direct access to goal and a cleaner defensive shape behind him. Nearly a goal per match this season at the central position makes the cause impregnable.
Nine ATTACKERS, one focal point
France named nine attackers for this tournament, all of whom have scored for the national team. That construction is purposeful.
Ousmane Dembélé holds width. Désiré Doué carries from between the lines. Bradley Barcola runs beyond. Michael Olise, fresh off a hat trick against Northern Ireland, has become the most credible connector near Mbappé, calm enough to operate in tight sequences and sharp enough to punish whatever space Mbappé creates when he pulls defenders with him.
Olivier Giroud is long gone. Previously, Giroud served as a fixed reference: physical, willing to take contact, the kind of center forward who makes an attack legible. Mbappé is something else, a forward who can begin between center-backs, drift into the left channel, and still arrive where the finish matters most.
What the retirements changed
Hugo Lloris, Raphaël Varane, Antoine Griezmann, Giroud, all gone. Griezmann’s 2022 midfield role gave France four attackers without the shape looking exposed. Giroud made the attack make physical sense. Deschamps now has to redistribute those functions to a younger, quicker group that can’t absorb positional rigidity as readily.
Then there’s the record. Mbappé is one goal behind Giroud, 56 to 57, on France’s all-time scoring list. Deschamps’ central role should serve that chase well.
The principle Deschamps applies hasn’t shifted: protect the team, then let the elite forward decide the moments that matter. France’s No. 9 is no longer a classic target man like Giroud. It’s Mbappé, placed centrally because Deschamps believes the team functions better when its most dangerous finisher starts closest to goal. Mbappe needs one more goal to tie Giroud’s 57.
A conservative idea. Modern personnel. Which is, more or less, what Deschamps has always done.
