Get French football news A chance to ask former France international William Gallas what he thought this week blue armyAs well as his former clubs Marseille, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Three of your former clubs – Marseille, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur – have struggled this season. Why do you think this is? What are the similarities and differences?
There are different issues between Marseille, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Playing for Marseille as a player, or managing a team is never easy, there is a lot of pressure. The fans there are crazy about football and you have to pick the right people in your team to deal with that. Marseille have a problem at the moment as it looks like they won’t qualify for the Champions League, which is a big blow to the people of the city. They need a good result against Rennes. The problem is communication between players and coaches. Unlike 20 years ago, head coaches need to find a different approach when talking to young teams.
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For Tottenham Hotspur, they are already where they are now. They won the Europa League last season and everyone was happy, the fans were happy and the club was happy, but they didn’t solve the real problem. That’s why they are fighting to avoid relegation. It’s not easy for them to stay up, I watched their game against Leeds United and you could see it would be difficult for Tottenham Hotspur and they have a London derby with Chelsea very soon.
We know Chelsea’s problem: the owner must manage the club better. Fans are not happy with what happened at Chelsea. We knew for a few years that the owners were not running the club in the right way. They’ve had several managers now. They spend money and get nothing to show for it. Yes, they won the Club World Cup, but it wasn’t enough.
Another of your former clubs – Arsenal – are having a great season and are in the Champions League final against French opponents. Can they win the final against PSG?
Anything can happen in a game. It all depends on whether the day works for you. A team can put on a special performance that day. If PSG doesn’t perform as well as usual, Arsenal have a good chance of winning the Champions League. What worries Arsenal is PSG’s final Champions League game. I’m surprised, they showed everyone they can defend a lead well. This will make Arsenal even more worried. They won’t just attack like they did in the first leg against Bayern Munich, which ended 5-4. When they went to Munich, everyone expected a similar result, but it was not the case, PSG was very strong and complete.
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An important factor in Arsenal’s success is centre-back William Saliba. How important do you think he is to Arsenal and France?
William Saliba has been excellent for Arsenal and is having a great season. He still makes some silly mistakes, like against Atletico Madrid, but he can still improve. In France, Saliba did not bring the same top performances to the team. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the same players and system around him, but he needs to step up. I’m waiting for him to step up for France.
I see you recently named Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele to your dream five-man squad. My guess is that they both make it into the current France squad – although Makelele is arguably more needed than Zidane as France have the likes of Michael Aulis, Rayan Cherki, Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappe. Who would you play up front for France?
Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise will play, but I think Rayan Cherki will be on the bench. Putting them all on the field will be difficult. Kylian Mbappe will play as a forward. Maybe Cherki can move into the starting lineup, but I’m worried about how effective the team will be defensively as a whole. Most of them don’t perform well in this aspect of the game and Didier Deschamps must think twice before taking action. These four frontcourt players can play against weaker teams, but against stronger teams, he has to consider who should start.
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William Gallas gives exclusive interview to France Football News bet victor
This exclusive interview is reproduced from Get French football news and can be found here
GFN | Jeremy Smith
