The situation
In the last list of Didier Deschamps pre-Qatar, Ferland Mendy returned to a call for the first time since March 2021. More than a year and a half without trying the honey of Les Bleus . A call-up that came at an idyllic moment, with the World Cup on the horizon. Ferland started both games, in the win against Austria (2-0) and in the loss against Denmark (2-0). And in a defense of three central defenders, as a winger, a drawing that does not favor the conditions of the Real Madrid player. Deschamps made the decision, as he acknowledged after naming his World Cup players on the 9th, to form with a line of four. On paper, a decision that favored Mendy’s presence on the final list. SHowever, the left back was not among his chosen despite the favorable context . Of the four Frenchmen at Real Madrid, the one from Meulan-en-Yvelines was the ‘ugly duckling’, Benzema, Tchouameni and Camavinga, ‘the swans’. Something did not convince Deschamps, especially in that defeat against the Danes… So Mendy, despite having kept the title on the big nights at Real Madrid, will have to follow his compatriots from a distance. It is not being a quiet start to the season for the Frenchman. Ancelotti continues to rely on his defensive robustness (seventh most used player with 1,326 minutes), but nights like the visit to Shakhtar in Warsaw, the victory against Celtic or the defeat in Vallecas (3-2) against Rayo exude a bitter aftertaste of face to stop In the first he lost Zubkov’s mark in the Ukrainian goal, against the Scots he committed a penalty that Courtois would finally stop and in the disaster at the Vallecano stadium he suffered tremendously and was surpassed by Isi and Álvaro.
Reset
The goal now is none other than to reset and keep fighting. If something characterizes Ferland Mendy, it is the confidence in her possibilities and her constant fight. For this you must use these forced vacations, to recover that rocky factor. There were already doubts in the summer, when offers for him were heard from the white club, as long as they were juicy . Not for not trusting his performance, but for being one of the most generous options to cash in and for the arrival of Rüdiger. The German was expected to be an immediate starter and the former Lyon inhabitant of the bench more than usual. However, he managed to reverse the situation based on work. Of course, the final stretch of these first months brings doubts to the restart of the post-Qatar season…