Euro 2008 and Beyond: Future for France Football

The European Championships were greeted with anxiety by many supporters of the French national side.

Although born in the United States, I was raised in a French household with a focus on French football. I first grew to love the game at the World Cup in 1998.

This era of French football, defined by the greatest player I have ever seen in my life, Zinedine Zidane, definitively ended in 2006 with the headbutt.

The talent of the French side made Euro qualification not necessarily easy, but certainly not an improbability.

However, defeating the Faroe Islands is a completely different challenge from winning the major competitions that France is expected to win.

I humbly submit my thoughts on the French team for this final group game of the Euro Championship and into the future

So far the French display has been miserable save for a spurt of activity in the middle of the game against the Dutch.

I see several issues that are preventing the team from advancing against Italy:

1) Attack

Anelka does not need to see the field barring injury. Gomis has a future, but is not ready for this big stage and has shown poor composure in his brief spells in these first two games. Benzema's effort against Romania was not aided by the selfish and seemingly bored play of Anelka.

Karim has proven himself in qualification and in club play, and deserved a second chance against the Dutch.

Benzema paired with Thierry Henry gives France the best chance to win. They complement each other's play and will knock in a few goals unless their goal-scoring pedigrees somehow disappear.

Benzema is quick and vicious, while Henry's clinical finishing is needed for a side that has thus far created few chances.

However, the root of the problems up front lies in the distribution and creativity of the midfield.

Simply put, Ribery is not Zidane.

He is our best option and works gamely in the midfield. I suggest a daring change in formation. The team should go 3-5-2.

I'll discuss the defense later but here is the path to unpredictable and open attacking play: LWM: Malouda, CDM: Makelele, CDM: Vieira, CAM: Nasri, RM: Ribery, ST: Henry, ST: Benzema.

The team needs to go for broke and frankly with a creative attacking midfielder who is actually used to the position we stand our best shot. Ribery remains most effective when the offense is not run through his feet.

He is a brilliant individual flank player. Taking attention off Ribery by putting the creative and distributive burden on Nasri and Viera would free him up on the right.

Italy is slow at the back and will certainly be playing a side defender who is not used to that position as they have in past games. The Dutch exploited this and we should too.

Again, comparing Nasri to Zidane is premature, but there is no question Ribery saw more time on the ball and less pressure playing with Zidane in the center of the pitch.

The duo of Vieira and Makelele remains the premier holding midfield pairing in the world. That puts less defensive burden on our attack.

The French squad needs to win and throwing five creative players at the Italians affords us the best chance of doing this.

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