“I find the DTN's media outing inappropriate, and I would even say disrespectful”: why Didier Deschamps lost his temper over the penalties ?

Didier Deschamps n'a pas tellement apprécié les propos du DTN de la FFF. EPA – Christopher Neundorf

The Blues coach Didier Deschamps castigated Thursday March 14 the "disrespectful media release" from the National Technical Director (DTN) Hubert Fournier proposing a system for the French teams to better prepare for penalty shootouts.

"I find the media release of the DTN inappropriate, and I would even say disrespectful, not to me, but to all national coaches, goalkeepers, video analysts, guys who do a job . We're preparing for the penalty sessions!', thundered the technician, who presented his list of 23 players for the matches against Germany and Chile.

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"This is not planned in the program" that Hubert Fournier comes to talk about the penalties to the Blues during the rally which begins Monday at Clairefontaine, added "DD". The DTN explained on February 9 on RMC that it wanted to set up a process for penalty shootouts, which the French teams have regularly lost in recent years.

The A's lost the World Cup final against Argentina (3-3, 4 tab to 2) in 2022, the women in the quarter-finals of their World Cup against Australia (0 -0, 7 tab to 6) and the Bleuets the final of the U17 World Cup against Germany in 2023 (2-2, 4 tab to 3).

"It is impossible to recreate the same situation on a psychological and athletic level"

The selectors will have to "propose a scenario while trying as much as possible to contextualize the penalty shootout", explained Fournier on RMC.

"My past as a player gives me information, it is impossible to recreate the same situation on a psychological and athletic level in a training session compared to a match with an extension of 120 minutes, we last one it was 143 minutes" against Argentina, replied Deschamps.

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The coach admits that he "could have used the word lottery" to talk about shots on goal, but "it's a balance of power between the shooter and the goalkeeper". "Obviously it's being prepared, all the staff, all the video analysts have data, stats on who shoots where, but they can change at the last moment", added the coach.

"I didn't feel attacked"

"The women worked on it, repeated it, and that did not lead them, unfortunately for them, to a success in the quarter-finals. It can be worked on, but doing sessions on it…" he sighed.

"I did not feel attacked", clarified Deschamps, "I make sure to understand, to be corporate, I&#39 ;puts a lot of support on the DTN. There may be bad intentions, and I'm not particularly targeting the DTN, of certain people, yes, it's common knowledge, but it's not embarrassing, a he concluded, without further details.