DIARRA MAY BE THE SOLUTION

French coach Raymond Domenech is certainly more disappointed than he showed it after the draw against Romania. He is also wondering which changes he should make in the line-up to improve the level of the French team and to beat Holland which has been very impressive against Italy. Domenech may have claimed that changes could be done but are not necessary; he considers making at least three or four changes compared to the team which played against Romania. The solution could be Portsmouth’s midfield Lassana Diarra who is very likely to play tonight. In fact, he is said to replace Willy Sagnol as the French wing back or Chelsea Florent Malouda who was disappointing against Romania. But Lyon right wing back Francois Clerc may also replace Willy Sagnol and Domenech may want Franck Ribéry to play on the left as he does with Bayern Munich.

In any case, Lassana Diarra’s ability to play on the right as well on the left offers Raymond Domenech a lot of options concerning the choice of tonight line-up. For the last days, French coach has been trying a lot of options during the training but nobody knows which players are going to play tonight. What is sure is that French striker Thierry Henry who has recovered from his injury will play and he should play alone with three midfields behind him. Consequently, Karim Benzema and Nicolas Anelka should start the game on the bench. On the contrary, Sydney Govou might start the game on the right of the French forward team and would be part of the French offensive midfields with Ribéry in the centre and Malouda or Diarra on the left. This offensive line-up is the most likely to be chosen by Raymond Domenech according to the last rumours.

Concerning the defence, Manchester wing back Patrice Evra is likely to benefit from the changes made by Raymond Domenech and will certainly replace Eric Abidal on the left of the defence. But Barcelona back might play as a central back instead of William Gallas. In fact, Arsenal back has declared that he was not at the top of his form and might leave his place alongside Lilian Thuram.

Last, French captain Patrick Vieira has recovered from his injury which prevented him from playing France’s last four games but should not start the game.