DIDIER Deschamps has had enough of answering the same questions all the time about Aymeric Laporte. So journalists don’t even really ask the same questions about Aymeric Laporte anymore.
Once again, the Manchester City defender is missing from Deschamps’ squad for the two upcoming France matches in Moldova (Friday) and against Iceland (Monday), both part of Euro 2020 qualifiers campaign. It does still shock people in England but it doesn’t have the same wave of indignation in France. Everyone knows that the former Athletic Bilbao man is good enough to be there but everyone knows he won’t be called up and why.
To understand why Laporte, 24, is in Manchester right now and not at Clairefontaine, the France training base in the south of Paris, we have to get in Deschamps’ mind first. The France head coach is neither blind nor stupid. He sees Laporte play. He knows how good he is. He has been watching him since he was 18. But DD has two very important prerogatives when it comes to build his squad.
➡️ Giroud & Zouma IN
⬅️ Lacazette & Laporte OUTHas Deschamps made the right call in his latest France squad? pic.twitter.com/wsFgBWdkEo
— Goal (@goal) March 14, 2019
The two are very much linked as well. The first one is about the seniority in the team. Having been in the group for a while, being already integrated to it, being a big part of it, knowing the rules and the codes is a big thing for Deschamps. For the centre backs, it means that Raphael Varane, Presnel Kimpembe and Samuel Umtiti have a big head start on the rest.
With Laurent Koscielny not involved with the national team any more and Adil Rami not playing with Marseille at the moment, the next one in line was Kurt Zouma. The Everton loanee has been in Deschamps plans for the last five years and counts three caps so his seniority gets him the nod alongside Varane over other young talented centre backs like Ibrahima Konaté (RB Leipzig), Boubakar Camara (Marseille) or Issa Diop (West Ham) while Dayot Upamecano (RB Leipzig) is injured.
The second factor is that Deschamps only wants to take two right-footed centre backs and two left-footed ones. And those two, for the moment, and because of the first factor above, are Samuel Umtiti, despite the fact that he has been injured quite a lot this season and seems behind Clément Lenglet in the pecking order at Barcelona, and Presnel Kimpembe, despite an up and down season in Paris.
Which means that there is no room for Laporte right now or Lenglet who has been excellent this season or the very promising and young Abdou Diallo, Dan-Axel Zagadou (Borussia Dortmund), Moussa Niakhaté (Mainz), Malang Sarr (Nice) or Evan N’Dicka (Frankfurt). Moving Lucas Hernandez from left-back to centre-back when he is fit is also another option.
| Pep Guardiola on Aymeric Laporte missing out on the French squad and his season so far.
“I cannot comment because I respect the decision from France's manager. He has his own decision and I am not involved in that.”
More below pic.twitter.com/xfAJUcTcp3
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) March 16, 2019
Deschamps has so many options available, so much talent at his disposal but those two factors will always hold the keys. There is a clear hierarchy for him. When Umtiti was out for the last international break in November, Mamadou Sakho was called up by the head coach. If Sakho had been out then maybe Laporte could have been called up.
Laporte was called up a few times, usually because of some injuries or players missing. But the 24-year-old had a chance to impress Deschamps directly and never took it. His attitude outside of training and the fact that he never really gelled with the rest of the squad is a problem. “He is a loner and never tried to integrate himself” says a source inside the French camp.
Pep Guardiola has said a few times that the Frenchman was “arrogant”. The Catalan thinks it is a great quality. Deschamps clearly doesn’t. Back in December, Laporte himself said in an interview with a Basque television that Deschamps was not calling him “for personal reasons”. On the record, Deschamps is only justifying his decision by the high competition at centre-back but keeps saying that Laporte, like all the others who are not picked, has to keep working hard and that his time could come.
Deschamps also always repeats that the door is never closed for anyone. But it is not really opened either for everyone as explained above. Aymeric Laporte will need a bit of good fortune to eventually play for France and he will also have to make sure that if one day he is back at Clairefontaine, he is doing everything he can to change his France destiny.
