Deschamps Explains In-Form Star’s Absence From National Team

France national team coach Didier Deschamps has opened up on the reason why he hasn’t included Arsenal superstar Alexandre Lacazette from the most recent France national team squad.

Lacazette enjoyed a fine season with Arsenal this term scoring 19 goals across all competitions and laying off eight more assists. The Frenchman also helped Arsenal to the final of the Europa League where the North London giants will face Chelsea on May 26^th. However, even that is not enough for the star forward to get himself a spot in his national team squad.

The World Champions are set to face a trio of fixtures (1 friendly, 2 European qualifiers) during the first few weeks in June. France’s campaign begins with a friendly meeting against Bolivia on 2^nd June and the following weekend, a European qualifier against Senol Gunes. Their final game for next month of the continental qualifiers will end against Andorra on 11^th June.

The star-studded 24-man French squad for the three games included Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, and even Olivier Giroud, most of the players that were an integral part of the success that France achieved in Russia last year.

However, to most people’s surprise, Premier League duo of Aymeric Laporte and Alexandre Lacazette missed out on the team sheet. Lacazette was labeled Arsenal’s Player of the Year while Laporte was a rock in Manchester City’s foundation which won them the Premier League title.

But Deschamps has admitted the main cause as to why he wasn’t able to pick Lacazette and preferred Sevilla star striker Wissam Ben Yedder over the 27-year-old.

In a press conference, the 50-year-old Frenchman stated, “There’s no reason for us not to see him again. I had a difficult choice to make, with Ben Yedder coming out of a big season too.’ You have the right to have a preference for Alexandre, like others, have for Wissam. I had a choice to make and I chose Wissam. He has scored 30 goals in all competitions this season. He scored in big games; he knows how to play in alone in attack. He’s named in this group of attackers as another option at one time or another.”

Author’s Take

The decision to not include Lacazette in the 24-man French squad is quite shocking, to say the least, but Deschamps won the World Cup with Giroud as his main center-forward. Ben Yedder is also quite a lethal finisher and maybe Lacazette just isn’t fitting Deschamps’ system at the moment.