World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why France will not win the tournament

The WC 2018 is underway and we have already seen some thrilling games such as Iran vs Morocco, Spain vs Portugal and the biggest upset of the World Cup so far; Germany's defeat to Mexico.

Amidst all this, Australia vs France was also an entertaining game as a lot was expected from this current crop of French national players. They were expected to blow Australia away in the opening game.

But nothing of that sort happened, rather Australia managed to give France a strong fight and made them work really hard to win the game.

It was clear that France won the game due to their individual quality in comparison to Australia. In other words, it was really a hard-fought win for France, something which is not expected of them considering the plethora of star players Didier Deschamps has at his disposal.

Many have given France the tag of favourites for this world cup considering that the quality of players they have in every position. But quality and individual talent need not necessarily result in success.

The English golden generation which played in 2010 World Cup is a prime example of this. Thus it is not set in stone that France will have a great run at this World Cup.

Here are 3 reasons why France will not win this World Cup.

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#1 Too much quality

France's quality could become a problem for them

'Everything in an excess is harmful', this is a common saying in life and this could just be the perfect phrase to describe France's situation right now. Yes indeed they have brilliant quality in almost every department, and they have it in abundance.

This is what many have claimed to be their strength, but it could prove to be a weakness as well. If Didier Deschamps decides to play a particular kind of football, he has to leave out certain players and with so much quality in the squad, it could prove to be his undoing.

Except for Oliver Giroud, they don't have any other target man to whom they can swing in crosses. and the Chelsea man is not good enough to be a regular starter for them.

Thus they have to play short passes and try to break the opposition. But the opposition forces them to go out wide.

Thus balancing this squad with so much quality is becoming a headache for Deschamps. If they play Mbappe, Griezmann and Dembele they will play short passes and if they are unable to break the opposition they will need Lemar and Fekir to swing in crosses for Giroud.

If they play short passes they will need Pogba and Tolisso to run the show in midfield, but if they want to swing in more crosses they will need their fullbacks to be high up the pitch to support the winger and the midfielders to cover for them, for that they will need the likes of Kante, Matuidi and Nzonzi who are more defensive minded.

Therefore it will be difficult for France to pick a style of play because of the plethora of quality players they have in their squad.

#2 Experience

France lacks the experience of playing together as a team.

In highly competitive tournaments such as the World Cup, experience matters a lot. In the game between Brazil and Switzerland, the Swiss were nowhere near Brazil's individual quality, but the players of that team had more experience playing together compared to Brazil, and they managed to hold Brazil to a 1-1 draw.

This French squad is relatively very young. The likes of Mbappe and Dembele can easily play for U21 as well. Apart from Hugo Loris, Griezmann is the most senior most member of the team at the age of 27.

Their team is clearly filled with young and energetic talent, but it lacks the experience of playing as a team. It is also the first World Cup for many of the players on the current roster.

Only Pogba, Griezmann, Loris, Varane, Matuidi and Giroud were the French players who played in the 2014 World Cup. Even if this squad is compared with France's Euro 2016 squad, then only 7 players are in the current roster.

Thus this team with all its talent has little experience playing together as a unit. The majority might have played big games for their club sides, but most of them have not done same for France.

As already stated, at big tournaments experience will play a crucial role and lack of it could hamper the chances of France to have a good run in this World Cup.

#3 Error prone

French players have been error-prone.

We all are human and are bound to make mistakes, but errors can prove to be very costly. Samuel Umtiti's handball against Australia exposed the French team.

Though it's one of the rare occasions we are seeing an error from Umtiti, it could have been very costly for France as Australia found a way back into the game out of nowhere.

Their captain Hugo Loris is one such player who has proven to be error prone for his national team, but he still is first choice for them. In the World Cup qualifiers against Sweden, his dreadful error gave Sweden a 2-1 win over them.

He came off his line to collect the ball and dribbled a little, took a swing with the ball but it was intercepted, this led to a Swedish goal and a subsequent win for them.

The Tottenham goalie committed another blunder against USA to help them take the lead. Lloris failed to keep out a Julian Green shot which he appeared to have covered and USA took the lead with their only effort on goal in the first half.

Griezmann has been another player who has been criticised to go missing in big finals and Paul Pogba who has been a regular starter for the France has been inconsistent for Manchester United.

If French players continue to make errors, their journey in the World Cup might come to an end sooner that expected.

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