Laurent Blanc is not happy with Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema has been publicly criticised by new France coach Laurent Blanc after he arrived late for training on Monday.
The Real Madrid forward turned up late to the French camp where they were supposed to meet prior to their European 2012 qualifying games with Romania and Luxembourg.
France will play Romania on Saturday at home in what will be a crucial match and will then play Luxembourg three days later.
The French have had a poor start to the campaign. They lost 1-0 at home to Belarus, but Blanc recorded his first win with a good 2-0 result away to Bosnia Herzegovina.
The incident with Benzema will only put more pressure on Blanc and the French team after another discipline problem appeared.
Benzema was criticised in the past by Blanc after the manager suggested that the forward needed to watch his weight.
Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho was also critical of the player stating that the striker needed to show more character. The 22-year-old has not featured regularly under the Real Madrid manager and has found it difficult to break into the Real Madrid first
team.
This latest incident has caused Blanc to speak out against Benzema. “He did not play yesterday [in La Liga] so he should have been on time,” Blanc said to
Reuters. "The meeting had been pushed back to 1130, 1230, and yet some are showing up late. I think that even if the meeting was at 2030, some would still be late.”
Blanc has struggled to instill discipline in a French side that seems to lack togetherness and is still in disgrace since their infamous exit from the World Cup.
The Benzema incident has already highlighted this, but Blanc said that he would not suspend the player. “We already have suspended players, we’re not going to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Blanc is quoted as saying
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