Mbappé absent, midfield struggling: Zidane faces early challenges before Belgium-France

Zinédine Zidane approaches his second match in charge of France with two urgent issues: the absence of Kylian Mbappé and a midfield that has yet to find its rhythm. Les Bleus face Belgium on Monday evening in the Nations League, just three days after their narrow victory in Turkey (0-1).

Mbappé, who suffered a left knee injury, has left the squad to return to Madrid. Finding his replacement in attack is the first real tactical puzzle for « Zizou ». But it is in midfield where the work appears most pressing: against Turkey, France never truly controlled the tempo or imposed its dominance on the match.

Former international Samir Nasri sums up the problem bluntly. For him, the comparison with Spain — reigning world and European champions — is ruthless: « Spain has a children’s philosophy of play. They all know how to play as a team. You could put eleven new players and a new coach in there, and Spain’s team would play the same way. It’s their playing identity. » A collective foundation that France, according to him, does not yet possess.

« France has no playing identity, » Nasri declares, placing England in the same situation. He notably points to the lack of midfielders capable of feeding the attacking talents: « We have enormous talent, but they are attacking talents that shine in flashes. We don’t have midfielders capable of supplying them with the ball. We don’t have control of the game. »

On the performance against Turkey, his verdict is measured: « We were happy with certain possession sequences for five minutes to catch our breath, but we never got a grip on the match. For Zidane, I’ll wait a bit. That’s what I hope to see, but when I look at the players he has, it’s going to be complicated in midfield. »

The match against the Red Devils will provide a first indicator of the new coach’s ability to provide concrete answers to these shortcomings identified from his very start.