France-Italy is a derby for Didier Deschamps. Apart from two brief stints at Chelsea (1999-2000) and Valencia (2000-01), the current coach of Les Bleus has only had experiences in France and on the other side of the Alps as a player (Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille and Juventus) then as a coach (Monaco, Marseille and Juventus in 2006-07). With the Bianconeri, the former midfielder completed his already well-stocked trophy cabinet: an additional Champions League after the one won with OM in 1993, a Club World Cup (1996), three Scudetti (1995, 1997 and 1998) and a Coppa Italia (1995). But above all, he has integrated a philosophy that today constitutes his trademark as a coach.
A few months before the Bosman ruling and after the administrative relegation of Olympique de Marseille to Division 2 following the VA-OM affair, Didier Deschamps imitated Michel Platini by joining Juventus Turin in the summer of 1994. It was therefore an XXL challenge that awaited the native of Bayonne because at the time, Serie A was considered the most competitive championship on the planet of football.
But Didier Deschamps was equipped for these ultra-demanding contests.”He was always ahead of his age. On the field, he was a player but already a bit of a coach. He knew how to understand situations very quickly, even at a very young age.“, confides Benoît Cauet, who crossed paths with the 1998 world champion at OM during the 1989-90 season and then at the end of the same decade in Serie A during top matches between the Old Lady and Inter Milan.
Marcelo Lippi’s tactical rigor, intensity of duels, defensive blocks that are difficult to cross, XXL adversity (Batistuta, Baggio, Stoitchkov, Simone, Bergkamp, Zola then Ronaldo from 1997), Didier Deschamps quickly found himself like a fish in water in Calcio. But alongside the very best on the pitch (Del Piero, Vialli, Conte…), the player trained at FC Nantes took on a new dimension.
Didier Deschamps, between Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro Tacchinardi, had a central place at Juventus.
In Italy, we only talk and live for victory and titles.
“He developed his game intelligence, particularly in positioning.. For that, Italy is a real school. I think that this discipline has remained inside him. Quickly, Didier became one of the pillars of Juventus. His game has not evolved over time, but his time at Juve has improved it.. With his presence, his teammates have also become better.says Benoît Cauet. His Italian experience has made him sustainable at the world level. He has become a greater player and has strengthened his leadership..”
It was also during his time in Turin that Didier Deschamps became the captain of Les Bleus in his own right. After two experiences with the armband in 1994 (against Chile in a friendly) and then a year later (against Slovakia during the European Championship qualifiers), the first player to have lifted the Champions League with a French club became Aimé Jacquet’s number one relay from Euro 1996, thus taking the players of the French team to a new level.
This culture of winning, which he already had in him at the beginning, Didier Deschamps developed during his five years at Juventus Turin. Benoît Cauet again: “In Italy, we only talk and live for victory and titles. Italian clubs are very demanding from this point of view. Training is based on that. Physically, it is very hard, you are asked to always give more.”
In Monaco, we experienced from the inside the shift from old-school football to modern football with Didier Deschamps
Didier Deschamps passed on all this Italian-style rigor from his beginnings as coach at AS Monaco in 2001. Now retired from all football-related activities, the former winger Nicolas Bonnal, who played for AC Ajaccio and ASM, will never forget how the current coach of the French team profoundly revolutionized the club from the Principality, despite being a semi-finalist in the 1994 Champions League and champion of France in 2000.
“It’s simple: with Didier Deschamps, we experienced from the inside the shift from old-school football to modern football.the former Monegasque tells us. Marco Simone, Vladimir Jugovic, Christian Panucci or Oliver Bierhoff, who all had a past in Serie A, were not surprised by his methods. The most surprised were the French players. For us, it was revolutionary and a bit like children going to Eurodisney.”
With Didier Deschamps and his Italian fitness trainer Antonio Pintus (now at Real Madrid), no more long runs. Time for weight training and basic training.We really ate itrewinds Nicolas Bonnal twenty-three years later. There was a radical change at the training center in La Turbie. We almost each had a squat workshop (editor’s note: to lift bars to strengthen the quadriceps in particular) not forgetting the compex (electrostimulation) to work on power. Before, bodybuilding was almost never done or only in our free time. Furthermore, on the field, the distances we had to cover were shorter and more intense.”
If the tactical aspect has also been more developed, Didier Deschamps, “a charismatic, intelligent coach who didn’t joke around on the pitch“(Nicolas Bonnal said), also largely developed the invisible preparation of players, already fashionable in Serie A in the 90s. If this did not pay off in his first season (15th in L1, 6 points from relegation), this innovative method for the time in France bore fruit in the long term (victory in the 2003 League Cup and the 2004 C1 final).
Didier Deschamps revolutionized AS Monaco in 2001.
“Before, La Turbie was open to everyone. He locked all that down. Journalists could no longer come as easily. Interview requests? Didier Deschamps had to validate them beforehand. In fact, he established what he experienced in Italynotes Nicolas Bonnal. Concerning the hygiene of life off the field, whether it was food or rest, he gave it great importance. If some players abused in terms of food, sanctions fell. With him, the training sessions were also more structured..”
Structured, this is the word that sticks today to the game advocated by Didier Deschamps in Blue, even if he currently has multiple players with very great talent in his squad. Despite the criticism, linked to his philosophy judged too “Italian” during the Euro, the coach of the Blues is defended by Benoît Cauet, former coach at the Inter Milan training center during the previous decade.
“He is criticized but the results speak for himhe pleads. We know the way he organizes his team. He’s not someone who’s going to be pretty. He’s rather pragmatic and insists on certain things in the organization. First, he tries not to concede a goal. And then, he tries to put the attackers in the best possible conditions. He tries to make all his players play efficiently, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has to make them play well. In his role, I find him very consistent..”
Facing Italy on Friday and over time, this Italian consistency has no reason not to continue in the mind of Didier Deschamps, faithful to his principles.
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