Didier Deschamps has opened up on the reason why he snubbed Arsenal superstar Alexandre Lacazette from the most recent France national team squad.
Lacazette has enjoyed a fine season with Arsenal this term scoring 19 goals across all competitions and laying off eight more assists. However, even that is not enough for the star forward to get himself a spot in his national team squad.
The World Champions are set to face a trio of fixtures (1 friendly, 2 European qualifiers) during the initial few weeks of next month. France’s campaign begins with a friendly meeting against Bolivia on 2nd June and the following weekend a European qualifier against Senol Gunes. Their final round up of the continental qualifiers will end against Andorra on 11th June.
The star-studded 24-man squad for the three games included Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and even Olivier Giroud, most of the players that were an integral part of the success that France achieved in Russia last year.
However, to most people’s surprise, Aymeric Laporte and Alexandre Lacazette missed out on the team sheet. Lacazette was named Arsenal’s Player of the Year while Laporte was a rock in Manchester City’s foundation which won them the Premier League title.
But Deschamps has admitted as to why he wasn’t able to pick Lacazette and preferred Sevilla hitman Wissam Ben Yedder over the 27-year-old.
In a press conference, the 50 year old Frenchman said, “There’s no reason for us not to see him again. I had a difficult choice to make, with Ben Yedder coming out of a big season too.’
You have the right to have a preference for Alexandre, like others have for Wissam. I had a choice to make and I chose Wissam.
He has scored 30 goals in all competitions this season. He scored in big games; he knows how to play in alone in attack.
He’s named in this group of attackers as another option at one time or another.”
