Henry gets a buzz from Saha link-up
Thierry Henry pronounced himself more than happy with the way he linked up with Louis Saha in attack for France in their latest World Cup warm-up.
The pair united to give France the first of their two goals against Denmark on Wednesday with Henry deflecting in the Manchester United forward’s header on 13 minutes.
“It worked well,” reflected Henry. “‘Petit Louis’ likes to go into battle and flick the ball on with his head. For the goal I anticipated his pass, and it worked brilliantly.
“He proved in the English Premiership that he has what it takes to be an international. It’s up to us to manage that.”
The Henry-Saha tandem was the latest attack formation tested out by coach Raymond Domenech as he shapes his side ahead of France’s World Cup opener against Switzerland on June 13.
Domenech deployed Djibril Cisse with David Trezeguet last Saturday against Mexico but that pairing failed to make as much of an impression as Henry and Saha.
Henry’s relative impotence in front of goal has been a worrying feature of his form for France, this was only his seventh international goal since 2004 but he insisted he was unfazed as to which system Domenech plumped for in Germany.
“We have a system, I play. I’ve already played with two (strikers), I’ve already played with one. At the end of the day it’s the coach who makes his plans. I don’t have any preference.”
Henry, Arsenal’s all time top goalscorer, took his international haul to 32 on Wednesday but he dismissed the notion that he was intent on overhauling Michel Platini’s record of 41 goals for France.
“If that record was my objective I would have taken the ball from Sylvain (Wiltord, who scored the second half penalty).
“If I was thinking of records I’d be taking the freekicks, corners, penalties. They know me well enough now, it’s not really my thing.
“I think we have to have a maximum number of strikers hitting the back of the net befor going to Germany as that should mean that once we’re there goals will come from every side.
“That’s why I wanted Sylvain to take the penalty so that he too can get in the groove.”
Henry reckons that Marseille’s Franck Ribery, who was gaining his second cap, can prove a potent force at the finals.
“There aren’t many players in the world today who can show brutal acceleration after taking the ball. He helped us win the penalty, we wanted him to take it but he declined.
“Players like Franck are interesting because they can create an opening at any point.”
France were decidely sprightlier against Denmark than they had been against Mexico last weekend, a point picked up on by Henry.
“We’re getting physically stronger. Against Mexico we were on the average side. We still had the Grand Motte in our legs (a reference to the squad’s scaling of the 3,000 glacier at France’s training camp in the Alps last week).
“You could see that after 50-60 minutes. Against Denmark there was more attack, coupled as usual with that willingness to defend well.”
He said there was still room for improvement.
“Everything’s not perfect, we’re still preparing. There are always things to finetune, to defend better, attack better.”
Wednesday’s result meanwhile augurs well for France’s prospects at the World Cup as they had beaten Denmark en route to each of their most recent international successes at Euro 1984 and 2000 and the 1998 World Cup.
Source:Soccer News
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