France squad anounced

[Jon'o]

From sky sports news

barthez (c)
gallas
squillaci
givet
silvestre
wiltord
mavuba
dacourt
pires
henry
cisse

[eirebhoy]

Thats a tough defence to beat. They all play centre half on a regular basis. No Evra means Domenech is playing safe. Midfield and attack is pretty much as expected.

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

Regardless of all the withdrawals, that is still a pretty formidable team.

[Jon'o]

prehaps RMK could get a yellow for a decent boot on henry and another for launching barthez :D

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

I just noticed that Barthez is captain for the game. I would never have viewed Barthez as a player with great leadership skills. In fact, I think this French team is short on leaders. The likes of Pires and Cisse may be good players but in the heat of a competitive international, sometimes players like that go missing.

[McCanada]

I laughed at Barthez as captain as well, but who else is there? He's the oldest guy there, and the other vets don't seem like captain material either...Wiltord? Pires? Both not likely to lead anyone, unless it's on a road to nowhere. Dacourt is a bit of a headcase, as we all know. Anyhow, seems like that left-sided axis that works so well for the Arse will be in force, and whoa, Kenny, that is the world's fastest front line, isn't it? Hope it doesn't turn into a track meet.

[tetsujin1979]

I could be reading this wrong. but it seems as well that Wiltord is on the left - presumably opposite Reid or Finnan - and Pires is on the right - opposite Duff - either way neither would inspire me defensively, Duff could have a field day! With Gallas at right full, it'll be crosses all round!

[Peadar]

I could be reading this wrong. but it seems as well that Wiltord is on the left and Pires is on the right - round!

The other way around.
Wiltord is more comfortable on the right and likewise, Pires is more comfortable on the left. It would be nonsensicle to reverse them.

I think if we keep hitting Silvestre we've got a great chance.
He's rubbish!

[eirebhoy]

I think if we keep hitting Silvestre we've got a great chance.
He's rubbish!
Its a pity we have no real right winger to cause him much trouble. If Reid plays he'll drift inside too much, if Finnan plays he'll be lucky to get up as far as Silvestre's left back spot in the entire match.

[ken foree]

we're ****ed

;)