France coach Didier Deschamps does not seem to be completely pleased with the condition that Olivier Giroud has arrived at the European Championship in, a report claims.
France were certainly among the favourites with the bookmakers going into the tournament in Germany but they rather limped out of Group D, finishing second behind Austria after beating them but only drawing against the Netherlands and Poland.
According to L’Equipe, some of Deschamps’ unhappiness about players within the squad is starting to come out and he has ‘privately questioned the commitment and fitness’ of Giroud, who has so far only come off the bench.
The head coach of Les Bleus has apparently questioned if the veteran striker has the necessary fitness or commitment to play a big role for France in Euro 2024, while Giroud himself was not pleased that he didn’t start against Netherlands when Kylian Mbappe was unable to.
The 37-year-old has ‘taken on an additional fitness regime’ to try and force his way back into the plans, the report claims, as France look towards their last 16 tie with Belgium in Dusseldorf.
With Mbappe donning a mask and able to play, it seems like Giroud might find it tough to get a start, while in a recent interview he admitted to feeling ‘physically and mentally fatigued’ and that being a reason for moving to LAFC.
France sucka. Their attack is completly impotent. Couldn’t hurt if the used Giroud up top instead.
If Deschamps bothered to watch a single Milan game in 2024, he would know better than to call Giro for NT. He just doesn’t have anything in him anymore. Pioli ran him into the ground.
True, but also guy is already 37 years old. As Milan fans we might not think of him as very old, because Zlatan was even older, but if we take Zlatan out of the picture then that is already impressive as hell to play on that level until 37 years old and still be scoring, not just waving to fans.
But true, this season for Milan was too much for him, he is just not fit anymore to play at that level.
Deschamps is clueless, if not for Mbappe he would be coaching a mid table team in France
From a France perspective. It was crazy for Giroud to fly to Perth and do that pointless friendly with Roma.
But they also should not still be needing a 38 yr old striker in a national setup as strong as theirs. I can’t understand how they still want to call him up.
I fully expect that both the player and coach are only expecting him to be an emergency impact player off the bench when behind. Or to fill some junk minutes late when they have a good lead.
Doubt there is actually much substance to the conflict story.
Giroud has always demonstrated that he is a great team first player. His short comings this year were generally from over use by Pioli.
There is no story here, French media didn’t report anything. Presumably it’s speculation from the fact that Giroud is not playing much and that Deschamps wad angry with Milan for their Australian friendly. But Théo is a starter since the first game so no sense.
Why Giroud has been called for the Euro? He’s the all-time best scorer for France, he was a starter for Milan and it’s his last tournament. Not all football is a business, NT coaches are often grateful to their legendary players. And Deschamps values character a lot. Considering that he went to 3 finals in 4 competitions, I think Deschamps earned the right not to be questioned about his methods.
In this case, Giroud is 37 years old, has been a starter all season because Milan can’t buy a striker, went to Australia for a stupid friendly one week before the Euro and there is also the extreme heat in Germany right now. Also when he played he looked lazy and not focused, very different from his usual self. But the tournament starts now so let’s see!
In few weeks Giroud will be 38 years old, and had a mediocre season at Milan. If Deschamps called him up anyways, he had to be aware that Giroud can be at best a joker for last minutes, not a man to play full games each 3 days at Euro.