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France head coach Didier Deschamps admits he is still working out a way to get the best from Kylian Mbappe.
The Real Madrid forward is his designated number nine, a role he is now performing for his new club after a summer move from Paris Saint-Germain, but most of the 25-year-old’s success has come from wide positions.
As the spearhead in a 4-2-3-1 formation in Friday’s 3-1 defeat at home to Italy, Mbappe managed just two shots with only one on target and he has been the subject of some scrutiny.
But Deschamps insists the forward is comfortable playing centrally, especially as he is given slightly more leeway in the position.
"He is an attacker who is playing in a central position, which suits him with quite a lot of freedom, but if you’re expecting him to be a pivot player, he isn’t that,” Deschamps told French television channel TF1.
"He is playing in this position with us, and he is playing there at club level too, with that freedom that he needs.
"He is not an attacker that is a box player, or a pivot player, but it’s about organising things around him to be as complementary as possible.”
Fellow forward Antoine Griezmann admits the players are still adapting to the retirement of Olivier Giroud after Euro 2024. "It’s a new attack. We no longer have Olivier Giroud, this number nine who remains between the two central defenders,” he told the Telefoot programme.
"It’s up to us to work to find ourselves on the field.”
Mbappe may not even start in their Nations League tie at home to Belgium as Deschamps is conscious of managing workloads.
"I started with the idea of distributing the playing time and because I suspected, from what I had seen at the start of the week, I should not take risks after all the injuries we had previously,” added the France boss, who will be without midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery due to a calf injury.
Belgium had no such problems in their opener, which they won 3-1 against Israel with Kevin De Bruyne scoring twice.
The Manchester City playmaker is looking for an improvement against France after three successive defeats - all by the odd goal - against Deschamps’ side, the 2018 World Cup semi-final, 2021 Nations League semi-final and a last-16 tie at Euro 2024.
"It was obviously not great to have lost the last matches against France during the big tournaments,” he said. "They were always very close matches, and they have never won by a large margin. It would be great if we could win this match.
"We will play against the best French players and we will want to show that we can do something.” # Notebook ## Note to editors - Reporting by PA Media * * * * The following information is not intended for publication ## Editorial contacts - Reporting by: Carl Markham, PA - Editing by: Nathalia Araújo, +49 30 285231472, dpa pa naj