France may never live up to their potential, but they’re winning

This French team may never be the team that we want it to be. Every time their lineup is released, there’s surprise and contempt for what France manager Didier Deschamps has decided is the perfect starting eleven for the match. One of today’s points of derision was playing Corentin Tolisso on the left wing.

The decision to play Tolisso in that spot was met with anger, but Tolisso was replacing someone who people thought should have never been there to begin with. Deschamps put Blaise Matuidi, a defensive midfielder who is not a left winger in any manner, in that spot after France’s first game against Australia. The lineup against Australia included a front three of Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann, but ever since then Deschamps has gone with Olivier Giroud as a lone striker, and Mbappe, Griezmann and Matuidi under him, with N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba playing deeper in midfield.

It was expected that Matuidi would be replaced by Thomas Lemar, Nabil Fekir or Florian Thauvin, but instead Deschamps chose Tolisso, who had only played for 15 minutes since the Australia game, in which he came on as a substitute for Matuidi in the midfield position.

The decision to play Pogba so deep is also a usual point of anger, since it forces Pogba into being a ball-winning midfielder. Pogba can do that, and he’s done it well, but the role reduces his attacking talents, and he’s very good at dribbling, passing and shooting the ball. You know: The fun things that we want to see.

For most of the tournament, this French team has been a disappointment for those of us dreaming of what they could be offensively. They’ve won, but most of their victories seem to be an affront to what we believe them to be capable of. They have too much talent to struggle as much they do. Or rather, they don’t win in the manner that we believe that they should. They haven’t captured the imagination as we know they can. The players are there, they just don’t have the freedom.

The manager Deschamps is looked on as the biggest culprit for France playing beneath themselves. His tactics, both the formation and what the players are asked to do, seems a direct affront to what the players are capable of doing. This France team, with the players that they have, could be like Brazil — defensively sound while expressive in attack. But Deschamps seems content to have a solid defensive structure and not much else when they go forward. It doesn’t help Deschamps that the memory of France losing 0-1 to Portugal in the 2016 Euros, when they were so much more talented than Portugal (who were without Ronaldo) is still fresh in the minds of the audience.

In a team with so many attacking options, Deschamps has made Giroud their focal point. It’s not a bad idea to send balls up for him to hold, or to play off of Giroud, who is a great scorer and passer, but it feels weird knowing that he’s their number one option. It’s as if Deschamps was given the option to take a long drive in the South of France and enjoy the beauty of the natural world, and he instead decided that he’d rather take a nap in the back of a bus and get to his destination as fast as possible.

Yet, France is going to the semifinal of the World Cup. They’ve done better so far than they did in the last tournament, where they lost to Germany 0-1 in the quarterfinal. They’ve beaten Argentina in a thrilling game that produced some of the most stunning goals in the tournament, and they’ve beaten Uruguay through a set-piece and a mistake by the goalkeeper. For all of the ideas of how France should play, they’re doing well while being as disjointed as they are.

This is a French team that is battling not just against whatever opponent is in front of them, but also the idea, the fantasy of what they should be. The fantasy itself isn’t wrong, in the sense that this team probably could be more fun if Deschamps wasn’t the one in charge. But it means that no matter how well this team does, their achievements are underlined by a sense of failure. The failure to live up to their potential.

But a testament to how great these French players are, is that even with the limitations seemingly set on them by their manager, they have persevered. They’ve won in different ways, and they’ve overcome different types of opponents. They finished first in their group with an own goal helping to beat Australia and Mbappe stepping up against Peru. They beat Argentina with Mbappe terrorizing their opponents and Benjamin Pavard scoring the most gorgeous of goals. And now they’ve beat Uruguay by scoring quick and then defending stoutly, knowing that their opponents couldn’t do much when they had to play from behind.

France has found ways to win, and while it’s not the ways that we wish they would, or the ways that we know that they’re capable of winning, it’s moving them slowly but surely towards the ultimate goal. For all of their problems, and the fantasy of what they could be, France is still one of the best teams and a favorite to win this tournament.