Lizarazu crowns Olise best of the three, Mbappé « out of sorts » despite his goal

Michael Olise was France’s best attacker in their victory in Turkey (0-1) on Friday evening in the opening match of the Nations League, according to Bixente Lizarazu. The 1998 World Cup winner delivered his analysis of the attacking trio fielded by Zinedine Zidane for his debut on the France bench.

It was Kylian Mbappé who opened the scoring with a decisive strike before being forced off in the 60th minute through injury. But despite this goal, the Real Madrid forward did not convince Lizarazu. « Mbappé’s merit was to score, but you can feel he’s lost his bearings on the left wing, his dribbles were a bit forced, » he said. « All of that is improvable, but I want to see this attack again, we can do better. »

Olise, positioned on the right, in contrast impressed the former Bayern Munich left-back. « For me, Olise was the most effective, the most creative, the hardest to stop, » he assessed. Ousmane Dembélé, deployed centrally as a false nine, also received praise: « I liked Dembélé’s impact as a centre-forward, particularly his pressing which set up a goal for us. He brought impact to the team as a leader, just like at PSG. »

Zidane therefore made a successful start on the scoreboard, but the attacking project remains a work in progress, notably with uncertainty surrounding Mbappé’s injury, the exact nature of which has not yet been clarified.