Zidane manager: Mbappé captain, but no special treatment according to Obraniak

Kylian Mbappé retains the captain’s armband under Zinédine Zidane, but the new France manager has no intention of granting him preferential treatment. That’s the analysis delivered Wednesday by Ludovic Obraniak, two days before Zidane’s first official match on the France bench: France-Turkey, Friday at 20:45, for the opening day of the UEFA Nations League.

For the former Polish international and pundit, Didier Deschamps’ successor intends to assert his stature from the outset. “We were all saying he had a certain classicism, that he would follow in Didier Deschamps’ footsteps and wouldn’t revolutionize anything. Yet today, he’s going to take back control. The star is him,” he declared.

Obraniak then illustrated his point with a concrete scenario concerning Mbappé’s positioning. “He has the potential, for at least a year, to say: ‘Mbappé you’re going to play on the left’. And Mbappé will say: ‘Yes Sir, I’ll do my best.’ ” A relationship of authority that the pundit directly contrasts with the end of Deschamps’ reign.

According to him, the former manager gradually lost control of his squad. “Toward the end, Didier Deschamps lost control of the players. It was no longer him making the decisions. ‘OK, Dembélé you’re better as a 9, but my captain wants to play 9 so you’ll play elsewhere’. He was accommodating.”

Zidane, by contrast, would represent a change in tone. “Today, Zidane isn’t accommodating. He arrives and says: ‘You, common sense dictates you’ve always been better there.’ ” Friday’s match against Turkey should provide the first concrete clues about how the manager intends to organize his team and manage his key players.