Michael Olise (22) hasn’t had a perfect start to life in a France shirt. After impressing for Les Bleus during the Olympic Games in Paris and then securing a big-money summer move to Bayern Munich, expectations were high, but they are yet to be met.
After featuring in the international break in September, he earned his third cap for Les Bleus in a 4-1 UEFA Nations League victory over Israel earlier this month. However, Olise struggled throughout. Initially, as a No.10 and then out on the right, he was wasteful with the ball, lacking physicality and lucidity in his decision-making, losing the ball on 22 occasions. Touted as the potential successor to the recently retired Antoine Griezmann, a heavy burden in itself, he did little to vanquish the memory of the Atletico Madrid forward.
That performance came in from criticism from Didier Deschamps. “He didn’t have his best match. He knows it too as well, potentially. He can do a lot of things but there were lots of technical errors. There are expectations there. He has faced them before,” said the France manager.
However, speaking on RMC Sport show After Foot, France U21 manager Gérald Baticle, who was assistant to Thierry Henry over the summer, has backed Olise to thrive for France. “Perhaps the last match was a little below [his usual level]. But he is still a young player, who needs to string together the matches and adapt in Germany and who now also needs to adapt to the [France] first-team,” began Baticle.
He added, “With the talent that I have seen, the professionalism that he has… I always attribute importance to these things. Michael has both. He will be back and he’ll perform.”
GFFN | Luke Entwistle
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