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L'Equipe: Interview with Morgan Schneiderlin by Ramon Molina


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Link: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fkickoff.blogs.lequipe.fr%2F%3Fp%3D1003&act=url

 

I was going to translate and post the article in here, but it was too long! So, I have added the translated link above.

 

 

Good read, these things tend to pop up during the international breaks. Morgan seems a bit disheartened not to get the call for France last season. I did think when they had numerous players out and Morgan was in the best form of his time at the club that it was his chance. Hopefully, like Lambert, it will come in time. Hopefully not at 31 though...

 

 

Thoughts on the article?

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Automatic translation for you, makes sense in French though. What's translated as shaft really says spine or central axis.

 

Yep, direct translation using Google is never 100% accurate, I got a French colleague to read it out to me in English, much better than Google.

 

She had a problem with "vis-a-vis" though ;)

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Yep, direct translation using Google is never 100% accurate, I got a French colleague to read it out to me in English, much better than Google.

 

She had a problem with "vis-a-vis" though ;)

 

I must have missed a joke I think, vis a vis simply means with reference to or concerning. Still can't be any worse than my daughter explaining acid rain to me in English.

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All this talk of this Adnan fella at united playing for England you would like to think someone has spoken to Morgan about the opportunity to play for them. Not saying it should happen, but the France team is missing a trick not at least getting him in the squad.

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All this talk of this Adnan fella at united playing for England you would like to think someone has spoken to Morgan about the opportunity to play for them. Not saying it should happen, but the France team is missing a trick not at least getting him in the squad.

 

What you have to understand is that Deschamps is obsessed with Victor lookalikes in CM, he doesn't want them to do much just recover the ball and pass it 5 yards, preferably backwards. You also have to have either played in full internationals before or be in a CL side. Morgan has no chance whilst Deschamps is in charge, if he's not even had a pre-convocation it means he's not even on their radar. If he wants to be a full international whilst Deschamps is in charge he has 2 choices, move to the Arse or explore the possibility of changing nationalities.

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Good interview (from what I can understand of the content), very open, is he saying that his partnership with Wanyama isn't currently at the level as his partnership with Cork last season? And that Pochettino has changed his preferred formation to fit in Osvaldo and Lambert?

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What you have to understand is that Deschamps is obsessed with Victor lookalikes in CM, he doesn't want them to do much just recover the ball and pass it 5 yards, preferably backwards. You also have to have either played in full internationals before or be in a CL side. Morgan has no chance whilst Deschamps is in charge, if he's not even had a pre-convocation it means he's not even on their radar. If he wants to be a full international whilst Deschamps is in charge he has 2 choices, move to the Arse or explore the possibility of changing nationalities.

 

Sadly (for the French) I think you are right. I am obviously bias but for my money there are not many better at what Morgan does in the Prem, and if you can do it week in week out in this league then you should at least be getting a look in for your country.

 

Again, not saying Morgan should, or even would play for England but he must have been here long enough now to qualify?

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Sadly (for the French) I think you are right. I am obviously bias but for my money there are not many better at what Morgan does in the Prem, and if you can do it week in week out in this league then you should at least be getting a look in for your country.

 

Again, not saying Morgan should, or even would play for England but he must have been here long enough now to qualify?

 

Yep. Signed in '08. So is now eligible, as I understand it.

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Yep. Signed in '08. So is now eligible, as I understand it.

 

I wish MLG would come + put this to bed once and for all, I'm tired of hearing bout it! I reckon he can't cos he played for Les Bleus Petit Hommes vs Toulans Tournament, but I need MLG to sign off on this with his authoritah!

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Good interview (from what I can understand of the content), very open, is he saying that his partnership with Wanyama isn't currently at the level as his partnership with Cork last season? And that Pochettino has changed his preferred formation to fit in Osvaldo and Lambert?

 

Yes, he says Pochettino likes to play with a "10" but because Dani and Rickie are pure strikers then he's had to adapt that element of our game. From that you have to conclude that he can't justify dropping Lambert or not starting Dani so the 10 role which you'd think would fall to Gaston has been shelved for the time being and our systems have been adapted accordingly. Morgan also says that our systems change every 3 or 4 games because otherwise the opposition know just how to counter them. .

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I wish MLG would come + put this to bed once and for all, I'm tired of hearing bout it! I reckon he can't cos he played for Les Bleus Petit Hommes vs Toulans Tournament, but I need MLG to sign off on this with his authoritah!

 

That's not an official tournament but he did play in some Euro U21 qualifiers, now whether those are official FIFA I have no idea because they fall under the hat of UEFA.

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That's not an official tournament but he did play in some Euro U21 qualifiers, now whether those are official FIFA I have no idea because they fall under the hat of UEFA.

 

Thanks windows. Can you contact Sepp Blatters and let me know pls. Tks.

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I wish MLG would come + put this to bed once and for all, I'm tired of hearing bout it! I reckon he can't cos he played for Les Bleus Petit Hommes vs Toulans Tournament, but I need MLG to sign off on this with his authoritah!

 

Here you go Bearsy, from the Wikipaedo...

 

In January 2004, a new ruling came into effect that permitted a player to represent one country at youth international level and another at senior international level, provided that the player applied before their 21st birthday.[12] The first player to do so was Antar Yahia, who played for the France under-18s before representing Algeria in qualifiers for the 2004 Olympic Games.[13] More recent examples include Sone Aluko, who has caps for the England under-19s and Nigeria,[14] and Andrew Driver, a former England under-21 representative who is committed to the Scotland national team.[15]

 

It all comes down to paperworks, innit. Needed to have his application in before he turned 21.

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What you have to understand is that Deschamps is obsessed with Victor lookalikes in CM, he doesn't want them to do much just recover the ball and pass it 5 yards, preferably backwards. You also have to have either played in full internationals before or be in a CL side. Morgan has no chance whilst Deschamps is in charge, if he's not even had a pre-convocation it means he's not even on their radar. If he wants to be a full international whilst Deschamps is in charge he has 2 choices, move to the Arse or explore the possibility of changing nationalities.

 

Are you part-French or do you live in France?

 

Not saying what you're saying isn't true I'm just wondering how you know all this as obviously you seem to know your stuff and be confident about it.

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Morgan can't play for England because of the home nations agreement. Not because of some tournament somewhere.

 

It's the same reason the united kid can't play for England either. Not that either of them would want to anyway.

 

The level of intelligence regarding this subject really is laughable. Especially from the media and The FA.

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Are you part-French or do you live in France?

 

Not saying what you're saying isn't true I'm just wondering how you know all this as obviously you seem to know your stuff and be confident about it.

 

Dual national, live in France, coach young players for the FFF (only occasionally nowadays unfortunately)

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It doesn't matter anyway. France will be unseeded in the euro play-offs and probably won't qualify. At which point deschamps will be sacked and someone who will pick Spiderman will take over (arsene wenger anyone?)

 

Depends who they get drawn against, I'd fancy their chances against anyone but Sweden. They weren't unimpressive against

Australia last night but the Aussies were so flipping awful that it's hard to draw any real conclusions from the game. Tbh I'd fancy Sholing or Concorde Sports to beat last night's Australia, no wonder their coach has been sacked.

Edited by Window Cleaner
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Agreed they should make it, but there's normally a big name somewhere that doesn't. Could still be us of course. Ideally I'd like France to draw Portugal and eliminate one of them.

 

Portugal are extremely overated, Ronaldo can't win Euro qualifiers all by himself and the rest is a bit average. Can't see England losing to a Poland who have nothing left to play for.

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It doesn't matter anyway. France will be unseeded in the euro play-offs and probably won't qualify. At which point deschamps will be sacked and someone who will pick Spiderman will take over (arsene wenger anyone?)
I don't follow them closely, but France have done ok under Deschamps haven't they? Not going to finish top of their group with Spain in it.
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Yep, a really tough draw for them, they're far better than England, IMO, as well as Greece / Bosnia, Switzerland and Russia who will all qualify (that's Greece or Bosnia, and Ukraine if we d1ck it up). But if they lose in the play offs and don't qualify will he keep his job? Can you imagine an England manager staying on after failing to qualify?

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I don't follow them closely, but France have done ok under Deschamps haven't they? Not going to finish top of their group with Spain in it.

 

They were very poor in their summer tour to South America and have had a few shocking results.The main beef however of the French public is Deschamp's constant selection of Benzema who until he got an easy tap in last night, which he wouldn't have got in a Hampshire league game, hadn't scored in about 1300 minutes of international football despite hundreds of simple looking chances against teams like Georgia. He didn't start last night and the whole outfit looked more balanced with Remy and Giroud.

As I've said though it's hard to tell because the Australiens were desperately poor, seeing old men like Lucas Neill and Tim Cahill chugging round the pitch reminded me of Sunday League football on Bitterne Park Rec. The Aussie keeper was pretty awful as well, young lad who plays for Dortmund seconds or something like that, Schwarzer would have done better with all of the goals except for the dodgy penalty which the French got for handball although the Aussie didn't touch it with his hand.

However this isn't the point, in the past 8 months we've had some pretty average players in midfield for France including the lamentably bad Guillavogui who can't even get into the Atletico Madrid side and another lump of whom I can't remember the name. On average there are about 50 preselections which go out to French players for each series of games, means each position in the 25 man group which finally gets called up for those games is doubled. As each selection comprises about 8 midfielders that means that each batch of pre-selections warrants about 15 or 16. If you're not even pre-selected it means that the FFF either knows nothing about you or doesn't rate you worthy of any consideration whatsoever and your situation vis a vis Les Bleus is desperately hopeless. For some reason DD has no opinion of Morgan whatsoever, whether that dates back to his refusal to move on when we went down to League 1 or whether DD just doesn't consider the Saints set up to be sufficiently advanced to consider it's players for selection I couldn't say.

Edited by Window Cleaner
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The current midfielders in the French squad are as follows

 

Cabaye, Ribery, Valbuena, Nasri, Pogba, Sissoko, Grenier, Matuidi & Payet.

 

All of which except for the Newcastle players are playing for champions or Europa league sides. Remind me why Schinderlin should walk into the squad?

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Because statistically he was pretty much the best defensive midfielder in the premier league last year, probably the second best league in the world. Wenger apparently wanted him, I'd take his view over yours if that's ok. And why have nasri and Ribery in the list? Utterly different roles on a football pitch.

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Because statistically he was pretty much the best defensive midfielder in the premier league last year, probably the second best league in the world. Wenger apparently wanted him, I'd take his view over yours if that's ok. And why have nasri and Ribery in the list? Utterly different roles on a football pitch.

 

Wenger also wanted Cabeye, a bit more than Schniderlin it would seem as he put a bid in for him. So maybe you should take his view over mine.

 

Nasri and Ribery are there because as I said if you can read I listed the current midfielders in the squad.

 

Also I love the Statistics jockeys who reel off stats in an attempt to prove a point, do you think those stats give you the whole picture? How about such as in the main defensive midfielders at top clubs won't need to make as many tackles and interceptions as in most games their team will have the lions share of possession? Thought about that? Oh no, let's just assume schniderlin should walk into the team because he's better than everyone, we might not know much about the others or have seen them play every week or have applied a bit of logic to our view but he's better, end of.

Edited by Turkish
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They're wingers, creative offensive types. It's like saying shaw should be in the squad ahead of Cahill and jagielka, when he's a left back and needs to be compared with cole and baines. If I'd left out statistics you'd accuse me of basing it on bias, so of course i will use statistics. Far more useful than your statistic about being in Europa league sides. How does that define how good a player is? Pogba, a player not good enough for United is likely to be sold by champions league standard juventus because they can't afford to keep a player of his standard. You see, it's all relative.

 

Defensive midfield play is about breaking things up and statistically, in a far better league than most, he was one of the best. Perhaps if France had chosen him they'd have done better against the superior teams they have to face and have qualified?

 

And you know that wengers never made a bid for him, do you?

Edited by Chewy
Predictive typing doesn't like Pogba
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They're wingers, creative offensive types. It's like saying shaw should be in the squad ahead of Cahill and jagielka, when he's a left back and needs to be compared with cole and baines. If I'd left out statistics you'd accuse me of basing it on bias, so of course i will use statistics. Far more useful than your statistic about being in Europa league sides. How does that define how good a player is? Pogba, a player not good enough for United is likely to be sold by champions league standard juventus because they can't afford to keep a player of his standard. You see, it's all relative.

 

Defensive midfield play is about breaking things up and statistically, in a far better league than most, he was one of the best. Perhaps if France had chosen him they'd have done better against the superior teams they have to face and have qualified?

 

And you know that wengers never made a bid for him, do you?

 

What part of 'they are all the current midfielders in the French squad' are you having trouble with? I never said they wre like for like players but players listed as midfielders who are in the French squad.

 

The Cabeye bid by arsenal was well publicised, yet all we have of wengers interest is your post. Do you think if arsenal made a bid for him it might make the news?

 

Not really sure what point you are trying to make regarding Pogba, it seems you're saying because Man United sold him as a kid and he's now too good for Juventus that schniderlin is more deserving of a place in the French squad!!!

 

As for your point re stats, do you agree or not that the better sides would in the main have more possession?

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Nice. How did you get into that?

 

Small town club when my lad was playing for them in the Unders, coaching badges through the levels and some summer "camps" with the regional set-ups,culminating in some sessions at St Etienne. Getting too old to work with youngsters now though, especially at StE, can't understand their streetspeak half of the time.

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What part of 'they are all the current midfielders in the French squad' are you having trouble with? I never said they wre like for like players but players listed as midfielders who are in the French squad.

 

The Cabeye bid by arsenal was well publicised, yet all we have of wengers interest is your post. Do you think if arsenal made a bid for him it might make the news?

 

Not really sure what point you are trying to make regarding Pogba, it seems you're saying because Man United sold him as a kid and he's now too good for Juventus that schniderlin is more deserving of a place in the French squad!!!

 

As for your point re stats, do you agree or not that the better sides would in the main have more possession?

 

You listed them as 'midfielders', I get that. It's just a spectacularly simplistic way of defining a player. 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 forwards, right? Itwas that level of brainlessness that led to England having a midfield 4 of scholes, Gerard, beckham and lampard. Pick 4 names irrespective of what actual role they play and hope it works. Do you, or do you not think its sensible to judge schneiderlins right to be in the squad against wingers?

 

I thought wengers interest in him was well known.

 

I'm saying just because juventus are in the champions league doesn't make their players great. And the same goes for any team. If they're in the champions league having qualified from England, Spain or Germany they are likely to be top class, but less so from other nations. This is even more the case in the Europa league. celtic are in the champions league, so I take it their midfielders are better than schneiderlin. Wanyamas clearly proved this, right?

 

I agree its likely that better sides have more possession, but then it's likely that teams with more shots on goal win matches. However, neither of these are indisputable facts, are they?

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You listed them as 'midfielders', I get that. It's just a spectacularly simplistic way of defining a player. 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 forwards, right? Itwas that level of brainlessness that led to England having a midfield 4 of scholes, Gerard, beckham and lampard. Pick 4 names irrespective of what actual role they play and hope it works. Do you, or do you not think its sensible to judge schneiderlins right to be in the squad against wingers?

 

I thought wengers interest in him was well known.

 

I'm saying just because juventus are in the champions league doesn't make their players great. And the same goes for any team. If they're in the champions league having qualified from England, Spain or Germany they are likely to be top class, but less so from other nations. This is even more the case in the Europa league. celtic are in the champions league, so I take it their midfielders are better than schneiderlin. Wanyamas clearly proved this, right?

 

I agree its likely that better sides have more possession, but then it's likely that teams with more shots on goal win matches. However, neither of these are indisputable facts, are they?

 

Is it almost as spectacularly simplistic as rely on stats and a rumour you might have heard someone as to the reasons why Schniderlin is so much better than current internationals playing champions league football?!!!

 

Where is the evidence of wengers interest? There were a few stories of him complementing him but no evidence of a bid, something there was for Cabeye. As you rate Wengers opinion so highly then you've shot down half your argument as Wenger bid for Cabeye, he didn't for schniderlin, so he must rate Cabeye more highly.

 

We're not taking about players playing in Italy, France, England and Germany! nice effort though.

 

So do you think they if a team has more possession than their opponents then their defensive players would have less to do than their opponents, in terms of making tackles, blocks and interceptions?

Edited by Turkish
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You listed them as 'midfielders', I get that. It's just a spectacularly simplistic way of defining a player. 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 forwards, right? Itwas that level of brainlessness that led to England having a midfield 4 of scholes, Gerard, beckham and lampard. Pick 4 names irrespective of what actual role they play and hope it works. Do you, or do you not think its sensible to judge schneiderlins right to be in the squad against wingers?

 

I thought wengers interest in him was well known.

 

I'm saying just because juventus are in the champions league doesn't make their players great. And the same goes for any team. If they're in the champions league having qualified from England, Spain or Germany they are likely to be top class, but less so from other nations. This is even more the case in the Europa league. celtic are in the champions league, so I take it their midfielders are better than schneiderlin. Wanyamas clearly proved this, right?

 

I agree its likely that better sides have more possession, but then it's likely that teams with more shots on goal win matches. However, neither of these are indisputable facts, are they?

 

Love the way Italy have suddenly become a footballing nation on a par with Scotland just so you can make a pi ss weak argument that Morgan should definitely play for France.

 

Juventus, eh? Small fry compared to the MegaEuroSaints.

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Is it almost as spectacularly simplistic as rely on stats and a rumour you might have heard someone as to the reasons why Schniderlin is so much better than current internationals playing champions league football?!!!

 

Where is the evidence of wengers interest? There were a few stories of him complementing him but no evidence of a bid, something there was for Cabeye. As you rate Wengers opinion so highly then you've shot down half your argument as Wenger bid for Cabeye, he didn't for schniderlin, so he must rate Cabeye more highly.

 

We're not taking about players playing in Italy, France, England and Germany! nice effort though.

 

So do you think they if a team has more possession than their opponents then their defensive players would have less to do than their opponents, in terms of making tackles, blocks and interceptions?

 

I answered this with its likely, but not necessarily the case. Care to answer whether comparing schneiderlin with wingers is right?

 

Perhaps wenger thought he had a chance of getting cabaye, which is why he bid.

 

And is wanyama better than schneiderlin?

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Love the way Italy have suddenly become a footballing nation on a par with Scotland just so you can make a pi ss weak argument that Morgan should definitely play for France.

 

Juventus, eh? Small fry compared to the MegaEuroSaints.

 

Where did I say that italian football and scottish football are on a par? In fact, where did I say Morgan should definitely play for France? I'm making the point that just because you play champions league football doesn't mean you're better than someone who doesn't, it depends. These are two examples, of different situations, that make me think just because Morgans not in the champions league, he isn't definitely worse than A) an existing french international or B) his current team mate who we can directly compare him with.

 

Fwiw I think juventus would struggle to qualify for the champions league in England and probably Spain and Germany. I think its a massive shame how italian football is haemorrhaging money and players (we signed osvaldo from Roma FFS) but they are still thankfully miles ahead of scottish football which is probably championship at best, celtic aside.

Edited by Chewy
Typo
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I don't think actual selection right now is the point. Last summer when France played 2 games in South America and had a relatively easy WC2014 qualifier on against Georgia on the horizon many of the CMs/DMs were totally out for one reason or another, some injured, some suspended so there were slots to fill. Some pretty average players got pre-convocations and eventual selections, players like Steed Malabranque (another who's never been called up by France just like Syvain Distin) and the totally woeful Joshua Guillavogui. So the real fact is that Morgan despite having what seemed to be an excellent season last year was not rated by the FFF (whether that means Deschamps or his advisors I couldn't say)

to be one of perhaps the 12 DMs selectionnable for the national side. It simply means that he's either being ignored for a reason or that the standard of SFC or his own standard is just not good enough to be considered. It's the same argument for other decent midfielders in the Prem like N'zonzi who cannot frankly be considered as worse than Guillavogui or even Sissoko. Cabaye won't start against Finland as likely as not, that will fall to Matuidi who falls more into Deschamps idea of what constitutes a DM.

Edited by Window Cleaner
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You'd think that after all his time living in this country, he wouldn't be speaking in such broken English. Some of that made no sense at all! And people complain about Pochettino! Morgan needs to sort himself out.

 

You'd think that with all their value Google could employ some decent translators as well. Interview in french is really lucid.

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