World Football: France: Raymond Domenech Clueless

The Group of Death in the Euro Championships was perceived to be made up of only three contenders—France, Italy and the Netherlands. But now, the former two teams are struggling to make it out of the group while Romania know that if they win against the Dutch, they could make a shock qualification out of Group C in Euro 2008.

France has perhaps been the more disappointing of the two big teams who don't have their fate in their own hands. It has been incredibly poor despite having very talented players such as Karim Benzema, Thierry Henry, William Gallas, Franck Ribery and Samir Nasri.

A couple of these players haven't even been used fully in both the matches which France have played.

Somehow, Raymond Domenech feels that playing older players would help France get out of the toughest group in Euro 2008. He's got his selection of the 23 players in his squad wrong in my opinion.

Which selections has he got wrong?

Bafetimbi Gomis is without a doubt a talented goalscorer. I myself admitted that he would be one of the players to watch out for, but he is far too inexperienced at the international level to merit a place in such a huge tournament. He's looked out of depth when he has come on and seems clueless—a bit like his manager.

How Domenech selected him over David Trezeguet—one of France's most prolific goal-scorers, only he can answer.

He seems to trust the likes of Willy Sagnol and Eric Abidal—players who have not had the best of seasons at club level. Eric Abidal in particular, has been incredibly poor and how he overlooked Gael Clichy is again something which I will never understand.

Florent Malouda is yet another player who has been picked for his name rather than performances. He has overlooked yet another superb talent in Hatem Ben Arfa when it comes to the 23 man squad.

His selections during matches have also been baffling to see the least. For a manager to not know his best 11 in a major tournament is something which can only be described as suicidal. He made radical changes for the game against the Dutch of which only Sidney Govou looked half decent.

In the same match, Thierry Henry was played in the lone striker position. He has been struggling to score goals this season and he played majority of the season in the left side of attack for Barcelona.

Why did Domenech play him up front on his own? How did he expect his team to score goals with a single striker deployed—even if the striker was Thierry Henry?

Yet another poor selection has been that of Toulalan along-side Claude Makelele. Now, I have nothing against Toulalan as a player—he has done a steady job but he is not a creative player and has contributed nothing in an attacking sense.

Makelele and Toulalan are similar players and simply cannot play together in the same midfield.

He has overlooked Samir Nasri in the starting 11 and astonishingly brought him on for Benzema after 77 minutes in the first match—in a game where they needed to score a goal desperately.

What's more? He played Gomis up-front alone for the last 13 minutes of that match!

Domenech has been profligate when it comes to using his resources. He has been incompetent when it comes to tactical acumen.

He has, in short, been a poor manager.

If France do fail to get through to the next round, an event which is highly likely, the blame has to be squarely placed on none other than Raymond Domenech—a man who has reportedly infuriated his players, created divisions within his squad and also incurred the wrath of other managers over squad selections for friendlies.

Even if France do qualify, the Football Federation of France must look elsewhere if they want a new-look France to get tangible results at the big stage—and that means that Raymond Domenech has to leave whatever France achieve in the EURO 2008.

He has outlived his stay as France's national manager and I'm sure that I speak for all French supporters when I say that I hope to see his back as soon as possible.