To be honest, I was quite hopeful before the tournament about our performance levels and general attitude.
We were playing not too badly, we were on a run of undefeated matches, including against top opposition, our best players were starting to care and perform (Ribéry and Benzema particularly). And most of all : we seemed to be a cohesive unit
How disappointing it has been since. The draw vs England was not too bad : we were erratic for the first 30 minutes, but largely controlled the game after Lescott's goal. The players seemed to really care and want to win, and Les Bleus were largely acclaimed for their attitude on the pitch, if not the final score which was disappointing given how poor England were. Then Ukraine, an excellent all-round performance : generally good defending, good attacking, many opportunities carved, two very well-taken goals... Nothing to complain about.
And finally Sweden. The cracks finally appeared and quickly transformed into huge wounds as we surrendered. The sense of entitlement came back as if it was never gone.
There are talks about a 2-year suspension for Nasri, and 4-match bans for Menez, Ben Arfa and M'vila. The most depressing thing is that I genuinely think they don't really care.
I'm very disappointed... Blanc had made some very good work until now, but it has been largely undone by a lack of collective awareness from (mostly) our attacking midfielders who, if you look quickly at the line-up, seem to have a cumulative IQ inversely proportional to their huge wages.
Just a special positive mention to :
- Lloris, who was generally brilliant in spite of defending behind a generally good but unfit Mexes and that shambles of a player Rami
- Ribéry, albeit being average he tried a lot and couldn't be faulted for having a bad attitude, as opposed to several teammates.
- Cabaye, for being very good for the 3 matches he played in (no wonder we surrendered possession against Sweden, he was not here battling for every ball).
