When you go into these tournaments, you need a good squad. Every player is important. You are building not only a team but also a regiment. It's like in the army. A band of brothers that will fight and die for one another all through the tournament.
While that is true, you cannot throw shade on the importance of a striker. A finisher you can rely on. A Klose, Ronaldo, Villa. Someone who when the the going get tough, the match gets tight, will somehow find a way of putting the ball in the back of that net.
No offence to your boys Giroud and Gignac, but they are not those kinds of players. One is purely a finisher who is at the behest of good service, while the other I think is overweight. Combined, you don't have that kind of player who can score when things are difficult or get the winner from an improbable situation.
Just look at Ronaldo's goal against Turkey in the World Cup.
Benzema's form has been up and down, but overall, he is categorically a better player and stiker than Giroud and Gignac. He's actually more on point when playing for France than he is for Madrid. Having him in what is one of the best squads at the Euros would have given me more confidence in leaning towards picking them to win the competition over the others.
Without him...and left with Giroud and Gignac, I'm not so confident about doing that.
There's a flip side to it all, and it goes back to 1998. France were hosting the World Cup, and their striker was none other than the legendary and all-time great...Stephan Guivar'ch. I don't actually believe he managed to score or even come close getting a G at that World Cup. He was awful and even worse than Giroud and Gignac. Despite that, France shared the goals around which included Thuram getting two G's in the semi-final on their way to winning the World Cup.
France have an excellent midfield, and there are goals in there. So an argument can be made that they don't need Benzema, because Marial, Pogba, Payet and Griezman are all goalscorers. And I am willing to bet money that the highest goalsscorer for France will come from one of those three players.
So this can be looked at both ways. However, France did not have the luxury of leaving a striker as good as Benzema behind. Didier should use all the talents he has. Benzema was found innocent of that weird case involving Valbuena, and so he should be free to be picked. It's unfair to use that against him resulting in missing a compeitition held in his home country.
France without Benzema, even with all those midfielders, I just don't know...HH
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