Ian Wright has questioned Adrien Rabiot’s unwanted ability of sometimes not paying attention at key moments in matches.
Speaking on ITV yesterday, Wright brought up the midfielder’s apparent weakness as a possible chink for England to expose when they face France at the World Cup on Saturday.
Rabiot has many good strings to his bow, as already demonstrated during his campaign in Qatar.
The 27-year-old was named in WhoScored.com’s early team of the tournament, mainly for his impressive display against Australia on matchday one.
He scored and assisted on the night, earning him rave reviews from the France national media.
Adrien Rabiot can rock
His talents have been available for the world to witness in the past few weeks, not to mention those who are reportedly interested in the player’s services.
Chelsea are apparently one of this considering taking Rabiot off Juventus’ hands, even though it is said he wants a pay rise.
Yet, Graham Potter may want to pay attention to Wright’s assessment of the Frenchman’s unfortunate skill at switching off.
“What I saw of Rabiot – (Jordan) Henderson and Jude Bellingham broke through today – he is someone who can switch off,” remarked the former Arsenal striker.
“He switched off when they (France) conceded, switched off in the box and they conceded in the box – he’s going to have to keep his wits about him because France have not kept a clean sheet.”
Adrien Rabiot takes his eye off the ball
Rabiot was admittedly rather stationary in the build-up to the goal France conceded against Poland yesterday evening.
Instead of shuffling over to cover his defence, he remained in the centre of the pitch as the opponents passed into the penalty area.
VAR then asked the on field official to check a possible handball, which he duly gave after checking the monitor.
It was little too late for Poland by the time Robert Lewandowski slotted past Hugo Lloris, but it was evidence that England can certainly cut holes in Didier Deschamps’ side.
The midfield battle between the Three Lions and Les Blues will certainly be an intriguing one.
Gareth Southgate’s trio of Bellingham, Henderson and Declan Rice dominated Senegal last night with a combination of power, poise and precision.
They should face a much sterner test in a few days’ time though.
Rabiot will likely line-up with Aurelien Tchouameni, with Antoine Griezmann able to add an extra man in the middle of the park.
It could be a midfield contest of Chelsea past, nearly the present and possibly future.
Rice started off his career at Cobham, Tchouameni was reportedly close to joining the Blues in the summer, whilst Rabiot and Bellingham are being touted as targets of Todd Boehly.
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