How Mbappe, Dembele, Doue, Olise are crushing opponents
Before the 1984 European Championship, the French manager Michel Hidalgo had a problem. He had four virtuosic playmakers, but not a centre forward. An idea was born, he made a midfield square with his gifted playmakers, helmed by the impeccable Michel Platini. It came to be known as magic square, or the Le Carre Magique, and they inspired their maiden championship triumph of note. Decades later, Hidalgo’s distant successor Didier Deschamps – whose France beat Norway 4-1 to top World Cup Group I – had a problem, too. He had a superfluity of riches that he couldn’t configure the perfect deception code. Both, Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, were wingmen repositioned to the centre by their clubs with staggering success. But he could slot only one. He could drop Mbappe or shunt him to the left for Dembele; he could not bench Dembele, the reigning footballer of the year, either. ALSO READ | The Ousmane Dembele show: The art of minimalism and scoring goals The confusion did not end there. He had two exceptionally versatile …









