A sports journalist with Cahiers du football, Philippe Rodier has written two remarkable works on the great coaches who have marked history*. He explains why Didier Deschamps’ management methods have taken him to the roof of the world.
The Express. Can we consider Didier Deschamps as the greatest coach in the world?
Philippe Rodier. From France, undeniably. And above all the greatest coach of a national team. We must make this difference. What Deschamps did with the France team, he probably could not have done at the head of a club. For him, the national selection is the ideal position, because it is he who chooses the players from a pool, it must be said quite exceptional; and he is not accountable to a possible president. When you run a big club, you don’t have that freedom.
Afterwards, it’s difficult to make it the greatest of all time. Other contemporary coaches have done bigger things: José Mourinho, for example, won Champions Leagues while managing underdog clubs; Pep Guardiola revolutionized the game by reviving Johan Cruyff’s philosophy with his total football; without forgetting Carlo Ancelotti who won several Champions League and championships in different countries. Nevertheless, his record at the head of the France team is unparalleled. I remember an interview where he was asked about it. He said then. “In the Olympus of coaches, there is Aimé Jacquet and there is God.” I don’t know where he will sit next to tomorrow.
A great coach is a great manager, which requires having a strong character. Is this the case with the French?
Deschamps is French but above all Basque. His first character trait is to be very stubborn. He always claimed it. But it is not someone rash Mourinho. I have very rarely seen him yell at his players. No doubt he barked more at his partners when he was a player. Now he’s all restrained. His great strength is knowing how to channel himself. This can be seen in his relationship with journalists: being a coach at this level means being as exposed as a President of the Republic, 24 hours a day and constantly being the subject of a million criticisms. And he excels in that role. As a counter-example, remember Laurent Blanc who is a very great coach, when he is at the head of PSG: he did not have this fluidity of contact, was brittle or even arrogant. In the end, this created a bad atmosphere at all levels and this explains his failure in the capital.
Does being in control mean controlling everything?
In any case, that is often how it is characterized. So basically, yes, the big boss of French football is him. And at the selection level too: he manages everything down to the smallest detail. Afterwards he is not a despot, especially in his relationship with the players. Controlling everything requires knowing everything and he does not have this control over the group, he is more subtle. That is to say that he has the intelligence to have good relays with the players, namely some who pass on to him the information of the others and he knows how to take this information into account by acting accordingly. Just one example during this competition: we never knew why Benjamin Pavard was replaced so early. It’s because Ousmane Dembélé prefers to play with Jules Koundé. But he would never have told Deschamps. We told him this information and he chose to dismiss Pavard given the performance of Dembélé. Deschamps therefore has this strength to rely on relays that we know like Hugo Lloris or Antoine Griezmann. But it can also be less expected people who are not in the leaders but who have a weight on the group as a whole.
Does this ability to continually change tactics make him a good manager?
We made fun of the tactician Deschamps a lot, saying that he is a “simplistic coach” who, basically, only likes winning and not the beautiful game. It’s ridiculous. At the 2018 World Cup, we finished best team in number of goals. Deschamps has an immense tactical sense which he developed very early on to the point that, wherever he went as a player, the coach consulted him on such and such a choice. The emblematic example is the period Aimé Jacquet who, indeed, systematically asked his opinion when he integrated a new player into the team. On the tactical side, it’s the same. Another of his coaching mentors, Jean-Claude Suaudeau when he started in Nantes, used to say that DD was the one who understood the exercises best. So certainly, he does not have the romantic vision of a Guardiola, but he wins his big matches. He is never locked into a pattern and has this very rare ability to change the game depending on his squad. This 2022 World Cup showed it like never before, between the injured who could never come, the state of form and above all the virus which hit the team. Each time, he adapted by putting the right player in the right place.
To his credit, he also restored the coat of arms of the Blues which, in retrospect, was not won after their defeat in 2010 and the Knysna fiasco (Players’ strike under the Raymond Domenech era, Editor’s note). Is this victory off the field important?
It is essential and represented the first success of Deschamps without which nothing would have been possible. For him, nothing is more important than the France team and he was able to give back to the players the taste and the love for this shirt which, mechanically, made the French people love their national team again. This brings us to another major characteristic of the coach: the psychological dimension: he makes his players want to follow him. I remember when he took the French team in 2012 after the Laurent Blanc interlude: he was shocked by the mentality of young people – easy money, notoriety, etc. Like when he went from Juventus to OM as a coach in 2009. Each time he will establish rules first by relying on his aura, that is to say his record and his character ; then by transmitting values that have always been his, such as the taste for effort, that of sacrifice and suffering – DD knows where he comes from, he left his family very early and earned more than his father very young what marked him deeply, he is silent and he knows what things are worth. Finally, he has a special relationship with most of his players. He really shaped this group. And he gave them an incredible collective confidence: you come out of a pre-match chat with Didier, you are convinced that you are the best in the world. This allows some to transcend themselves.
Until succeeding in resuscitating some like Griezmann and Varane who were said to be dying before arriving at this competition?
Absolutely. They are, like Lloris, its leaders. Again, you have to go back to Deschamps’ playing career to understand the importance of leaders within a team. He was very young, as soon as he played at RC Nantes and he had to impose himself. He knows the importance of having one and which profile to choose. That is to say, not necessarily barkers and there in this case with Varane and Lloris, calm boys who reassure others. For Grizou things are a little different. He has a deep emotional relationship with him, as – we often forget – he had it with Benzema, whom he loved like a son and even before with Mathieu Valbuena. At each Deschamps period, there is this type of leader that he has not let go, often against general opinion. Nobody believed in Griezmann at the start of the World Cup after his season in Spain. He will put him back on the field according to his qualities of the moment and the rest we know: without Griezmann, the France team would never have made this course.
There are the leaders, the backbone of the team and there is above all an ability to integrate the youngest which is a key to its success. How is it ?
First of all, and let’s not forget, these young people come from an exceptional generation, which will continue in the coming years and which the whole world will envy us: there is a French-style training model which is now largely copied. These young people are already playing in the biggest clubs, they are gifted. The strength of Deschamps is to reach out to them for their talent, while knowing that they do not have international experience. This was the case following the cascade of absentees during the selection. And we see the result since they won this final. He bet on these young people who, despite many imperfections, sought to make themselves worthy of it. Nobody could imagine the dimension taken by an Adrien Rabiot or an Aurélien Tchouaméni during this competition. They are the perfect examples of this success. Didier Deschamps gave them and the whole group incredible confidence and immense serenity. It feels like nothing bad can happen to this team.
* The ideal trainer Hugo Sports editions, 2017, 256 p. €88. The greatest sports managers confide, Editions Amphora, 2021, 576 p. €28.5.