Nothing is going well between Benjamin Pavard and Didier Deschamps. The defender of the Blues would not be in top form, both sportingly and psychologically. A situation analyzed in Europe 1 Sports, a program to live every evening from 7:15 p.m. to 11 p.m. during the World Cup in Qatar.
“I made the decision not to let him play. I had several exchanges with him, I consider that he is not in good conditions, in good dispositions”, affirmed the coach in conference of press Wednesday after Tunisia-France (1-0), a match that Pavard spent on the bench, overtaken in the hierarchy by the novice Axel Disasi.
Below the level of his teammates
“You’ll say to me, ‘is it physical, is it the head?’ Obviously the first game didn’t help him. That’s why I made a different choice,” the boss continued. reigning world champions.
Holder against Australia for the start (4-1), Pavard had appeared below the level of play of his teammates, with a guilty placement on the opener; the only shadow on the French board – with the injury of Lucas Hernandez – during this promising meeting.
And when approaching the knockout phase against Poland on Sunday (4:00 p.m.), the goal man “came out of nowhere” at the “second post” against Argentina (4-3), in the round of 16 of the World Russian, appears very marked.
Downgrading
On the substitutes’ bench on Wednesday, Pavard kept a closed face, sitting alongside his friend Olivier Giroud. He warmed up during the second half, without coming on. “I spoke a little with him, we know that Benjamin is someone who works a lot, I know he will be ready for the rest of the competition. , that he will give the maximum” assured Thursday Kingsley Coman, his partner at Bayern Munich.
Pavard has reason to be disappointed: four years after a tournament played as a starter, he approached the World Cup as the number 1 choice as a right-back, but he lost his rank in the second meeting against Denmark (2-1) in favor of Jules Koundé, yet far from being reassuring in this position in the past. This did not prevent Pavard from being one of the first to jump into the arms of Kylian Mbappé on the first goal of the Blues.
Against Tunisia, he had to have the opportunity to recover. But Deschamps chose Disasi, a professional central defender, without any selection before the match. And the decision does not seem to have been taken at the last minute. “The coach came to see me a few days ago to tell me that there was a possibility that I would start in this position, that he had confidence in me,” explained Disasi.
Axis or side
For Pavard, 47 selections, this downgrading comes in a heavy competitive context. In recent days, Koundé and his partner in Barcelona Ousmane Dembélé, holder on the right wing, have continued to highlight their agreement on the ground, a complicity on which they insisted in front of the press.
Outside the field, the control by the German police for drunk driving, revealed in early November, did not help the daily life of the 26-year-old Bavarian as the World Cup approached.
This is not the first time that the Pavard case has questioned the France team. In November 2021, Deschamps had preferred Léo Dubois to him at the start in Finland in qualifying for the World Cup (2-0), a choice explained with mystery by the coach. “I’m not going to go into details, the important thing is what I say to the players. I made this choice for certain reasons,” he said.
A year later, Pavard’s confidence is still at its lowest as the 1/8 final of the Blues looms.
Source: Europe1
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.
