France is entering a new era under Zidane—and the tactical makeover is already underway. From Mbappé moving wide to a sharper, more fluid attack, discover why Les Bleus could be Spain’s biggest rivals on the road to 2030. #Football #Soccer #France
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0:00 - France Begins a New Era
2:01 - Zidane’s Tactical Changes
3:04 - France’s Center-Back Options
4:26 - Fullbacks’ Evolving Roles
7:57 - The New Midfield Structure
9:33 - Midfield Roles and the Front Three
11:49 - Coordinated Attacking Movements
14:28 - Fast Circulation and France’s Outlook
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/
Subscribe for more football breakdowns!
Tell us what you liked most about the video in the comments!
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@futebolmaximo
0:00 - France Begins a New Era
2:01 - Zidane’s Tactical Changes
3:04 - France’s Center-Back Options
4:26 - Fullbacks’ Evolving Roles
7:57 - The New Midfield Structure
9:33 - Midfield Roles and the Front Three
11:49 - Coordinated Attacking Movements
14:28 - Fast Circulation and France’s Outlook
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/
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SportsTranscript
00:00I don't know about you, but the feeling I get is that this 2026 World Cup kind of marked the
00:05end of an era in international football.
00:08Look, Brazil really went off the rails, and the feeling now is that we're rebuilding everything from scratch.
00:13Portugal, with a super promising generation, starting from scratch.
00:17Germany wants to try and end a series of disappointments with a coaching change.
00:20The Netherlands turned the page by hiring a new coach, and Argentina, which was what it was in recent World
00:25Cups, also seems to have brought its cycle to an end.
00:27The feeling I have is that moving forward, we have many doubts about what international football will become, but even
00:34so, I have two certainties.
00:36Spain will lead the way in this new era, and France, even with a coaching change, will continue to lead
00:41world football.
00:44Zidane arrived to succeed Deschamps after three World Cups at the highest level.
00:48Champions in 2018, runners-up in 2022, and huge favorites in 2026, but ended up being eliminated early by the
00:55champions.
00:55And the coolest part, Zidane is already making changes right off the bat, and Mbappé is no longer the starting
01:01center forward.
01:02Barcola and Douai are likely to lose their spots in the starting lineup.
01:06And some new names need to be introduced.
01:09But all of this builds on his predecessor's work.
01:13Nothing will go to waste, and a new cycle begins right now.
01:17In this video, I'll show you how France is reinventing itself under Zidane, and that, even without the title in
01:23the United States, they remain strong enough to rival the Spaniards in everything that lies ahead.
01:28Come with me.
01:29I think a good starting point for us to talk about this new cycle is to understand who France was
01:34in the last cycle.
01:35Of France that had been building a new generation of very young players, where maybe Mbappé, who was just a
01:42kid in the 2018 World Cup, is now one of the leaders of this team that has also been developing
01:47other great new players.
01:49And maybe it's precisely this smooth transition from one phase, from one generation to another, or at least from one
01:55generation's beginnings to its maturity, that allows France to keep competing at a high level.
01:59So, Zidane arrives, making some changes, that's true, and those of us who got used to seeing, at least in
02:04this final stretch, France playing more in a 4-2-4, now the tendency is for us to see a
02:10team that occupies the space between the lines even better.
02:13And one thing that was France's strong suit in the last World Cup, in my opinion, was that, no matter
02:17how the game unfolded, the feeling was that they would always find a goal and win the game.
02:21And the coolest part? Without relying on just one way of playing.
02:24When they needed to attack in open space, just imagine, you have a team with Mbappé, Olysse and Dembélé, who
02:29know how to exploit that space really well.
02:31Not to mention Dwayne and Barcola.
02:33When it's a tighter game, you have good players to look for counter.
02:36Look to take players on, right?
02:38You have Olysse out wide, Mbappé knows how to do it, Dembélé does it very well, and they're also great
02:42at shooting well from distance.
02:44If the game is somewhere in between, and you need to exploit the space between the lines better, Rabiot, who
02:48is very underrated in my opinion, plays that role well.
02:51And Olysse, Dembélé and Mbappé drop deep to fill that space.
02:54With Zidane, that's not lost.
02:56But I feel like he adds a little extra spice to help this team make more runs in behind.
03:01And to get started, we need to begin right from the defense.
03:04At the beginning of this new cycle, we saw the retention of some players, and here we need to add
03:08a few asterisks, right?
03:09To explain what changes Zidane has been promoting here.
03:12First, Mignan remains in goal.
03:14I think he really is the best goalkeeper of this French generation, and moving a bit further forward, we already
03:18start to see some changes.
03:20Upamecano, for now, remains a starter, and next to him, we must remember that in that match against Spain, Saliba
03:27came off injured with back pain, and that he has been sidelined for Arsenal throughout the start of the season.
03:31There is even an expectation that he will only return next year, so we can expect that he will indeed
03:37be a starter in the Zidane team.
03:38But while that doesn't happen, other good players have been tested.
03:42The first of them is Lacroix, who was already in good form at Crystal Palace, who arrives at Chelsea to
03:48help raise the level of the Blues defense, and was embraced right away by Xabi Alonso.
03:52The other option is Jacquet, who was signed by Liverpool and brings a lot of quality to the Reds' defense,
03:58especially with the departure of Konaté, who also ended up losing a bit of ground in this first call-up.
04:04But we also have to consider and remember that he's been dealing with a few injury spells as well.
04:10So, it's only natural that we once again see France with plenty of options at centre-back.
04:16Upamecano, Saliba Konaté, Jacquet, Lacroix himself, and, why not, Koundé, who can also slot in here along with Kalulu, and
04:22moving a little further out to the full-backs.
04:25And you'll see how it all connects, okay?
04:27We've gotten used to seeing the French right-back not pushing forward as much, which is the case with Koundé.
04:32He's a full-back who knows how to play a very hybrid role.
04:35At times, he's a third centre-back, at times he pushes up into the midfield, and at times, why not,
04:41he attacks the space in behind too.
04:43And that says a lot about the behavior of full-backs in this new generation, which we've already seen in
04:48these first games against Turkey, Belgium, and Italy.
04:52On the other side, this guy right here, Bournemouth's 24-year-old full-back, is probably going to be Zidane's
04:57starter at the beginning of this cycle.
05:00Troffer turns out to be precisely a full-back quite similar to what Koundé can be.
05:05A more balanced full-back who reminds me a lot of what Digna did for a long time in French
05:09football, and that he might not be able to do anymore in the final stretch of his career.
05:13In recent years, we've gotten used to hearing about the Hernandez brothers, Lucas Hernandez, who often acts almost like a
05:21centre-back, a more balanced approach, but whose club career never really took off the way his important role in
05:27the national team suggested.
05:28And what about Teo?
05:29Teo, on the other hand, really took off at Milan.
05:31We had very high expectations for him.
05:34He's still only 28, which means he'd arrive at the next World Cup at 32, but he chose to put
05:39his competitive career somewhat on the back burner when he decided to move to Al-Hilal.
05:44Maybe that's the main reason Zidane wants to test Troffer here.
05:48Here, I don't imagine we'll see French full-backs actually playing as wingers.
05:53Teo was that guy.
05:54He was the guy who, in the attacking phase, often waited high up like a winger.
05:58And when France was set up in the attacking half, he was right there, waiting, waiting, ready to receive the
06:03ball, attack the space in behind, look to go up against.
06:06That's definitely not the profile of the two full-backs France has right now.
06:09The idea is that they're mostly complementing the wingers' role.
06:13They usually wait around the midfield area, even to try and prevent potential counter-attack situations.
06:18But I'll get to that point a bit later on.
06:21And when the winger cuts inside to attack, they overlap on the outside to be an option and almost a
06:26surprise element.
06:27If the winger is hugging the inside or the outside looking to counter, they underlap inside to drag the marker
06:33away and create space for the wingers to dribble.
06:36It's as if they're there much more to be a decoy to draw defenders away, or if the marker isn't
06:41distracted, to receive the ball as a surprise element.
06:44I see that this has become a trend in world football, and it's important for you to take note of
06:48it.
06:48More and more, I believe the great full-backs in football will be those who arrive as surprise elements,
06:53not full-backs who sit back like center-backs, or who hold their ground as defensive midfielders, or who just
06:59wait on the wing.
07:00They usually take up one position first, only to arrive unexpectedly later.
07:04We saw a lot of this in the World Cup.
07:06Condé did this during the tournament, and Zakaria did it very well for the Swiss national team.
07:10Daniel Munoz had an extraordinary tournament for Colombia, even though Colombia didn't make it very far.
07:15Just as Nuno Mendes also played really well for Portugal, displaying those very same traits.
07:20And with that, we start to uncover what this French national team will look like.
07:24And I personally plan to bring several videos to make your international break a bit less boring, because I know
07:29it's not everyone's favorite topic.
07:30The international break isn't anyone's favorite topic, but I admit that this time around I kind of liked it, with
07:35a few more games.
07:37Managerial changes.
07:38And what for many people is a time with a bit of a breather, since there aren't as many big
07:41games.
07:42For me, it meant a lot of work.
07:43So I want to ask you to pay me back a little bit for that hard work.
07:46By remembering to hit the like button down below, and if the high button appears, click it too, as it's
07:50super important for the channel.
07:52And obviously, if you're not subscribed yet, subscribe, because I'm planning on turning this into a series on the channel.
07:56Let's see if you guys buy into the idea.
07:58Moving up the pitch, you'll notice that I basically set it up here as a 4-3-3.
08:02And before, you could say, we saw France in a 4-2-4, right?
08:06Two defensive midfielders, and then up front, Mbappé, Dembélé, Olis, and Marcola Ordue.
08:11Truly four wingers, right?
08:12Practically four wingers.
08:13They didn't have a number 9, just like they didn't have a number 10 either.
08:16Except the picture started to change a bit, and it starts with the holding midfielder.
08:19Okay?
08:20I think we're going to see that holding midfield role filled mainly by two players this cycle.
08:24Kone, who had a hell of a World Cup.
08:25And Takuna, the player from Cesc Fabregas' Como.
08:30If before the big name we talked about who ended up gaining a lot of ground with the Shams was
08:33Chouamini.
08:34I believe that with Zidane, especially given this early work, we've been able to see these two guys are going
08:38to be very important.
08:39They're players that I see bringing more dynamism to the game.
08:42You know that kind of midfielder who controls the ball quickly, turns, and is restless?
08:46I really like using that word.
08:48Restlessness, to me, is what drives the best midfielders in world football.
08:51It's a bit like what we see with Vitinha.
08:53Brings the ball down, turns this way, turns that way, looks for space, draws markers in, and breaks through.
08:58I think Kone and Takuna can be exactly that type of player.
09:01And take a look at what an interesting profile Lucas Takuna has, right?
09:0525 years old Como player.
09:08Left-footed.
09:095 feet 8 inches, that slightly lower center of gravity.
09:12Which actually allows him to accelerate a bit faster sometimes, be a bit more resilient too, without relying so much
09:16on physical strength.
09:17And he really turned heads last season.
09:20Let's look at his career here.
09:222025-2026 season at Como.
09:25He started in 31 of the 36 matches he ended up playing.
09:28In other words, a trusted man for Fabregas.
09:30And if Fabregas says so, I trust him.
09:33Back to our tactical board, this is where I think the most substantial change happens,
09:37and which we were able to see mainly in the friendlies against Turkey and Italy.
09:42Rabiot seems to have this guaranteed spot, and I think he plays a very important role.
09:46Not every defensive midfielder or midfielder for France can do it.
09:49He can start well as a central midfielder, more aligned with Kone, with Takuna,
09:54and as the game develops, he comes to occupy the space between the lines.
09:57He's a solid, well-balanced guy, who can defend with the same quality that he attacks,
10:02he moves the ball around, he reads the game extremely well,
10:05and has the exact experience needed to make this generational transition smoother within the national team.
10:11Instead of betting on a complete overhaul,
10:13why not see that Rabiot can be one of those players who, if you're attacking, gives you an extra man
10:18in attack.
10:19If you're defending, he's an extra man to defend.
10:21And I really like it, especially because of all the experience Rabiot brings.
10:24And here comes the main change.
10:26Instead of seeing another forward, now we can finally talk about France playing with the number 10.
10:31Turkey, who curiously wore the number 9 shirt in this last run of friendlies during the FIFA window,
10:36but who is effectively the cerebral playmaker, the thinking midfielder who does a little bit of everything.
10:41Another restless player in this French team, which isn't so positional, doesn't wait around in space that much,
10:47doesn't really hold his position, but the idea is to link up wherever the game calls for it.
10:52If it calls for attacking the space, they'll do it.
10:55And as we fill in these spaces on our tactical board, we start to understand the dynamics.
10:59And all of this is completed with the front three.
11:03On the left, Mbappé earned the starting spot, no longer as a center forward,
11:07but as a winger who has the freedom to cut inside while the fullbacks come in to cover that role.
11:13If Mbappé steps in as a forward, Trufford can be that wide fullback.
11:17And as I explain here, you'll understand why Zidane did this.
11:20On the other side, Olyse is the one who claims the spot.
11:23And maybe he's the most complete player on the national team, alongside the number 9 Dembélé.
11:27They are players who know how to be a number 10, know how to be a 9, know how to
11:30attack space,
11:31know how to be counter-attacking wingers, and they do a bit of everything.
11:34Besides having a great ability to build up plays, Dembélé ended up getting injured in a match against Turkey.
11:39And I think the trend is for us to see either Dawe or Bakula taking up that space.
11:45Up to this point, no major changes, even though Mbappé adds that extra little touch, which you'll understand in a
11:50bit.
11:50The idea is that France's 4-3-3 isn't static, but rather a guide for an extremely coordinated team,
11:56where basically two movements will complement each other.
11:59One player drops deep to link up, which we'll call support, while the other player makes a run in behind
12:05the defense.
12:06And this keeps complementing each other in both directions.
12:09For example, if Dembélé drops deep to link up, he'll draw someone in.
12:13And Mbappé can be the player to make the run in behind, and the opposite makes sense as well.
12:17Okay?
12:18For example, if Koundé overlaps on the outside and drags his marker away,
12:22Olyse will have more space to drop in support and link up.
12:25And with that, Cherky, Rabiot, Mbappé, Dembélé, Olyse.
12:30Everyone seems to understand this quite well.
12:32Maybe coordination is the main word that guides this Zidane team?
12:36With Illustrate, I set this up as if it were another team defensively here.
12:39And then all this logic will become clearer.
12:42Okay?
12:42First, a dynamic that to me is fundamental for us to understand what Zidane tries to exploit.
12:47When we look at these marking matchups, usually one striker stays on the defensive midfielder,
12:51the other comes to press the centre-backs, each winger on a full-back.
12:54And because of that, there are no great passing lanes.
12:57Except that's when France decides to do things differently.
12:59We see Rabiot and Cherky around here, right?
13:01Usually, we see Cherky drifting out a bit more, Rabiot tucking in a bit more.
13:06And the one who comes to occupy this space here is Dembélé, an extremely mobile player,
13:12extremely smart at taking up empty spaces.
13:14And what is the big problem with that for the opposing defence?
13:17Usually, whoever marks him is one of the centre-backs.
13:20And this centre-back is going to be in the most uncomfortable situation possible.
13:24Why?
13:24If he decides to step out and track Dembélé, he knows he's leaving a huge space behind him.
13:29And that Mbappé, Douai or Barcola will probably look to exploit that space.
13:33But if he doesn't, he's going to be more conservative.
13:36He'll hold the line here and protect the space.
13:39Great.
13:39So Dembélé ends up being an extra midfielder who will create a 4-against-3 numerical superiority
13:45inside here, in the middle, where a player will always be free.
13:48And with that, he'll have more potential to drive forward and even find passes for the
13:53wingers, making runs in behind.
13:54And this same logic will work in other positions in a very interesting way.
13:58For example, right?
13:59It's quite common to see at times Cherky, for example, running in behind, dragging his
14:05marker with him.
14:06And now, this space opens up for Dembélé to come occupy, for Rabiot to get free.
14:11But what's most natural is to see players from further away positions come do this.
14:15Precisely to throw the marker off.
14:17If Rabiot comes over here, his marker follows him.
14:20Now, if Olis leaves the wing to become an extra midfielder inside while Cherky pushes
14:24forward, the fullback gets confused.
14:26And that's how France keeps creating space.
14:29It's a team that definitely never stops.
14:31And what also caught my attention was the speed of their ball circulation.
14:34A point that I know really bothers those of us who support the Brazilian national team.
14:38Seeing passes being exchanged so slowly, meaning the center back receives it, passes to the
14:43other center back, passes to the fullback, passes to the defensive midfielder, and the
14:46ball goes back to the center back.
14:48And it becomes predictable for the defense because, obviously, if the ball doesn't circulate
14:52quickly, you can just move at the pace of the ball and track your man.
14:55Now, if the ball moves really fast and you have players constantly breaking lines, and
14:59another one supports, who comes to take up space?
15:01Comes to occupy the space and opens up space for someone else to break through.
15:04And having these rapid exchanges with the ball circulating really fast, my friend, trying
15:08to read that quickly, is extremely difficult.
15:10And definitely, this France side is much more prepared than other national teams.
15:13They're much more dialed in.
15:14So, when they go up against a less prepared team, the chances of France figuring it out
15:18much easier are a lot higher.
15:20And what also really catches your eye is how the players set to come into this team have
15:25everything needed to complement those skill sets.
15:27I mentioned the left wing, for example, right?
15:29Mbappe gets injured, ends up coming off.
15:31And when Bidoué comes on, does a great job filling that quality gap and brings a lot
15:36in transitions, maybe even more in tight spaces.
15:38We have Ikitike, injured, who also has the quality in transition physical play, dropping
15:43deep to link up and breaking in behind the defense.
15:46On the right, in the match against Italy, Zidane preferred to play Pavard, Koundé or Kalulu,
15:51more of a center back who can also play as a fullback and did a good job.
15:54For holding midfielder, I mentioned it, right?
15:56He plays Kone, but he also uses Dacunia, who has somewhat similar characteristics.
16:01Curiously, maybe only the much criticized Rabiot is the player who doesn't have such
16:05an obvious replacement.
16:07But given the wealth of talent coming through in France's new generation, I wouldn't be
16:10surprised at all if in the next four years, another guy emerges to fill that spot in the
16:15midfield.
16:16The truth is that France was already very strong under Dachan, had a brilliant World
16:20Cup that we can't downplay because of their elimination against Spain.
16:23Spain went through everyone, regardless of who showed up.
16:25And I believe the Spanish would still end up as champions of that World Cup.
16:28But France, as I rightly said at the beginning of the video, was a major favorite up to a
16:32certain point in the World Cup, right?
16:33Until they faced Spain and they attacked in various ways.
16:36If they had to attack slowly, they attacked slowly.
16:39If they had to speed things up, they had the quality to speed things up.
16:43And the feeling I have is that Zidane comes in to add even more, establishing a clearer
16:47pecking order and instilling more confidence in the French to pursue their third title at
16:51the 23rd World Cup.
16:52And of course, we'll also follow the Nations League and Europa League around here.
16:55And if you also like European soccer and want to see a bit more of this FIFA window, I recommend
16:59these two videos right here.
17:00The first one to talk about the turnaround of Xavi in the Netherlands, with the arrival
17:04of Xavi Hernandez to lead the Clockwork Orange.
17:07And also with the arrival of Jorge Jesus to lead Portugal.
17:10Full of controversy now with the Cristiano Ronaldo issue, but it also has some interesting changes
17:14and I'm also really optimistic about what we'll see from Portugal.
17:17Click there and keep binging the channel.