France vs Holland preview

So it looks like Pat and Thierry may be back… although its probably more likely we’ll have Titi than the Old Man. Or at least I hope so! They’re going to have to find some incredible strapping for our old pensioner if he’s going to play and be effective tonight – or perhaps Tony Stark can lend him his Iron Man suit?

Many seem to feel that their return is essential, that we won’t be able to win without them and that they were the key element that was missing on Monday. And, of course, Henry may well be the difference tonight – he has been one the most important players for France for a decade now and he has big influence when we play, but for me that still doesn’t excuse their performance against Romania. Regardless of the absence of Henry and Vieira and the fact that we played with two defensive midfielders, the bottom line is that that was a poor display and no France side should play like that. We expect better from them and if they’re honest so do they.

With or without Henry, its time to step up.

Its as simple as that for me. We all know how they can and should play. We’ve had this formation for years and we’ve played well many times with it. The same with Vieira and Henry, we’ve played without them before and haven’t looked like a bunch of losers.

Our side is brimming with quality and there simply is no excuse for them not to perform.

The time is now, boys.

Now, lets have a look at the Dutch shall we. Well, like many, I’m not particularly terrified of the Dutch defence. As strong as their attack is, their defence is equally dodgy. For instance, you ask yourself, how has Boularouz got a starting place!?

One would think, therefore, that since our defence is so strong we should be in a good position to deal with them. The Italy result must make us aware, however, as the Italian defence isn’t necessarily shabby – although Cannavaro’s absence does seem quite significant.

One thing that’ll certainly help us is the more open style of Dutch play – it seems likely that the game will be more open and that will definitely suit us. The other thing in our favour, historically at least, is the fact that we tend to play a lot better against the big teams. Perhaps it is the issue of more space afforded to the team or maybe it is simply a matter of France being inspired by the occasion. Whatever the reason France have seldom let me down against the big teams.

There is one other little worry in the back of my mind, and that is that a draw wouldn’t be the worst result for Holland, and I’m sure they know this. With a win already under their belts, there is the chance that they will be more cautious in this game and avoid losing rather than try winning. We’ve seen France and Holland play like this before and its very frustrating, and my worry is that even though we all know we need the win, if Holland play conservatively France may struggle to get out of that all-too-familiar zone and I’m sure those little devils on their shoulders will be telling them that a draw still keeps them in it…

But all in all I’m optimistic about the game. We feared that Romania was going to be the tough game, and our fears turned out to be true – the Holland game, on the other hand, suits us far more. On paper it may be ther more difficult of the two encounters, but on French paper it is in many ways the easier.

And there are also other plusses in the return of Henry and in the knowledge that it is in our hands to play differently, as Steph’s post on Wednesday illustrated.

As Steph said to me after the Romania game “what annoys me is that they’ve worked so hard for this… they’ve been preparing for this for so long”. Exactly brotherman, exactly.

This is it boys… time to step up!

-J.P. de Rosnay