Mathieu Valbuena on Didier Deschamps’ pep talks: “I got out of there, I was an animal, I wanted to smash everything.” | OneFootball

In an interview with RMC Mathieu Valbuena reminisced on his time with Les Bleus and Didier Deschamps. Specifically about the match that could be looked at as the beginning of the World Cup journey between Les Bleus and the former Marseille coach.

As a coach, he has always been defined by his ability to lead the many personalities and egos that are in the locker room of a team with that type of talent and success. Looking back at that time now you can almost see the building blocks that Deschamps was setting for the future.

Going all the way back to 2013 the Les Bleus coached faced his first hurdle to qualify for his first World Cup with the team as a manager, beating Ukraine 3-0 after being down 0-2 in the first leg.

Valbuena recounted his coach’s speech that started the comeback stating,  “I got out of there, I was an animal, I wanted to smash everything. It gave a lot of strength and determination to the whole group. He always knew how to breathe that into his teams. Deschamps in his talks, he will talk a bit of tactics but he won’t dwell on the subject, he will mainly talk about families, people, he will share with us his experiences as a player and a coach. He gives you chills. You go out of his chat, you say to yourself ‘wow'”.

If anyone knows Deschamps’ talks, it is Valbuena, who had him as a coach for not only his national team, but with Marseille. The former Marseille player was right. That game against Ukraine was one of his very best in the tricolor shirt. He played possessed with the will to win. That intangible ability to motivate players may not be quantifiable as a metric, but is surely something Deschamps should be praised for as master of his craft.