The brilliant Michael Olise represents a key faultline in history of French football | Jonathan Wilson

Unusually in the France side, he plays with a sense of freedom and has not yet submitted fully to Deschamps’s tactical yoke

Michael Olisé is probably the best creative player in the world at the moment. He racked up 26 assists for Bayern Munich last season. It was his shift into a more central role that transformed France’s game against Senegal from drab slog to impressive victory.

The confidence he always had at Crystal Place has evolved at Bayern into a graceful fluency. In a hugely talented France side, Olise is the standout, the player who it feels might carry them to the World Cup. Yet he is something of an anomaly.

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