World Cup 2014 Playoff: Kyiv Blow Up Means Deschamps Needs France Response

Perhaps when Laurent Blanc decided that the end of Euro 2012 would be the perfect time to step down as manager of Les Bleus it wasn't so much as with an eye on immediately returning to the club game, but more so to do with what may come next for the Tricolor.

After all, it took Blanc just over 12 months to return to club management, eventually succeeding Carlo Ancelotti as Le Parisiens head coach. But on the back of a decent enough showing at the European Championships—sure they offered little as an attacking force against Spain in the quarter-finals, but neither were they the first to struggle on that front—and a 22-match unbeaten run during his tenure, it's only right to say that the World Cup winner did a decent job as France boss.

His team, however, had found their level. At no point during Euro 2012 did they look like potential winners, lacking the technical prowess of Spain, the tactical expertise of Italy, Germany's dynamic attack and, in Portugal's case, Cristiano Ronaldo and a rugged defensive streak. They were in that top five-eight bracket, but no higher.

They were hammered in the French press post-Donetsk (particularly Samir Nasri, with whom they have no love lost), and the incoming Didier Deschamps immediately found himself in a catch-22 situation: Tainted by what was perhaps harshly seen as relative failure, he needed to lift a group of players, while young players weren't yet ready to step up and Spain were waiting in the wings (again) having been paired in the same World Cup qualification group.

The highly promising group of under-20s, led by the outstanding Paul Pogba, were not yet World champions and Raphael Varane apart (and to an extent Pogba since March), Deschamps hasn't had youth players ready to make the step up to the first team during his 16-month tenure—his starting XI for the 2-0 defeat in Ukraine featured just one player under 26 (Pogba).

Therefore, the former Marseille boss has been working his way through with the same group of players who were organised under Blanc and who were unbeaten during his time in charge, except for his opening two matches and his final two.

However, while Blanc's France perhaps didn't thrill—and let us be honest, Deschamps' most certainly haven't—what Blanc's side were, if anything, was consistent.

Deschamps' side, on the other hand, have been nothing other than the opposite as seven wins, four draws and six defeats in his 17 matches will attest, while his team selection's have on occasion baffled. Certainly that was the case in Kyiv.

In recent matches a 4-2-3-1 formation featuring (mostly) Samir Nasri and Franck Ribery on the flanks and Mathieu Valbuena as a No. 10 had been appearing to bear fruit. Three clever players, capable of linking midfield and attack, be it through intricate passing or intelligent positioning, all seemingly on one another's wavelength.

However, encouraged by Loic Remy's club form and impact on the national side as a substitute in the 3-0 win over Finland (it was 1-0 when he replaced Nasri after 71 minutes) and the 6-0 decimation of Australia in Holger Osieck's final debacle, Deschamps decided to start the Newcastle striker in Kyiv, dropping Valbuena to the bench and sliding Nasri into the middle—a position in which he has continually flattered to deceive for both club and country since his final season at Arsenal.

And for Deschamps it backfired. It backfired badly.

4-2-3-1 seemed more 4-2-1-3 with Nasri handed a tricky task of picking up possession and finding the high front trio quickly. The Manchester City man, however, interpreted the role as one where he needed to drop deeper because the wide men were stationed higher and the onus of dictating play was set on his shoulders.

Yet his attempts at leading by example, of coming to get on the ball and make things happen, left France rather broken. They had enough possession but couldn't work it into advanced areas on a regular enough basis.

Remy's movement, always looking for the ball in behind, was one-dimensional and Franck Ribery was double-marked whenever the ball came near. Valbuena's intelligence and Nasri's roaming's from out-to-in, which allow for Mathieu Debuchy to overlap, were noticeable by their absence.

When Deschamps did make changes, they were like-for-like, with Valbuena replacing Nasri, Moussa Sissoko coming on for Remy—and staying high and wide on the right, not his natural position either—and Karim Benzema for Olivier Giroud.

And of course they self-destructed defensively, Debuchy too weak to cope with Roman Zozulya for the first goal, Debuchy utterly stupid in dealing with the same man for the second. But throughout, the sort of solid foundation that had been the norm under Blanc were missing, Pogba and Blaise Matuidi too easy to play through while Ukraine's intelligent wingers Andriy Yarmolenko and Yehven Konoplyanka were afforded too much space out wide.

France had netted 13 goals in their previous three matches and perhaps Deschamps was buoyed by such a statistic. If so, then he judged things spectacularly wrong and given that prior to those three games they'd gone five matches without a goal, you have to question exactly how.

Now Deschamps must take his place in the dugout at the Stade de France in Paris—despite Paris Saint-Germain's best efforts still not a city that you would call a footballing hotbed—where Les Bleus must get off to a quick start.

Do the players who floundered in Eastern Europe get the chance to redeem themselves? Will Valbuena and Benzema be asked to dig their manager out of an almighty hole?

Having seen things go so badly wrong in the first leg, Deschamps needs a response from his men.

The question is: how? For the sake of embarrassment, he dare's not get it wrong again.