With France against Ivory Coast being a friendly on Tuesday night, players who don’t normally get picked by Didier Deschamps will get given a chance.
Among those, perhaps rather surprisingly, is Chelsea’s N’Golo Kanté, often left on the bench by the French manager, who came on for two minutes against Sweden on Friday.
With France winning their last three qualifying games without him on the pitch, it seems Deschamps has got his team set for the foreseeable future, especially up top, with the decision to include Kevin Gameiro as Olivier Giroud’s backup instead of André-Pierre Gignac proving to be a good one.
Preferring a midfield partnership of Blaise Matuidi and Paul Pogba, the former Juventus and Marseille coach was asked in his pre-match conference about constantly leaving the Chelsea midfielder out.
Relayed by Le Figaro, he said: “He changed clubs, and you probably watch more Chelsea games than Leicester games. I used to watch as many Leicester games as Chelsea games. What he did well at Leicester, he’s doing it at Chelsea. No offence to Leicester, but he’s gone up a level.
“This gives him more experience. He was great last season, he was with us too, and he still is. After that, I have choices to make. I can’t play everyone. “NG”, he’s great because he’s always smiling, always 100%. I’m not worried about his level, and what he’s capable of doing.”
The former Leicester star has been ever present for Chelsea this season, starting and completing all 11 games under Antonio Conte, even scoring a goal against Manchester United in their 4-0 win at Stamford Bridge.
