France coach Didier Deschamps admitted he has still not found the right balance to his team despite a 6-0 friendly demolition of Australia.
France discovered on Friday that they had secured a place in at least the World Cup play-offs despite not playing a qualifier themselves as results elsewhere had gone their way.
Warming up for their final Group I qualifier against Finland at the Stade de France on Tuesday, they lit up the Parc des Princes on the other side of Paris with a goal-fest.
The catalyst for a stunning display was Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery, tipped by many to win the Ballon D'Or at the end of the year.
He scored the opening goal from the penalty spot and had a hand in four others as he ran the Australians ragged until he was substituted just past the hour mark.
But while Deschamps knows his first choice on the left hand side of his team, with Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra providing overlapping runs in support of Ribery, the coach admitted he is yet to find the perfect combination on the right.
Loic Remy played on the right of a three-man forward line but failed to have anything like the same impact as Ribery, and in the final 20 minutes he spurned two glorious chances, firing wide with the first and dallying with the second to allow debutant goalkeeper Mitch Langerak to come out and block.
Most of France's best football came from the left and indeed they favoured that side when moving forward.
"There are several players who can play on the right," said Deschamps. "Loic has different qualities to Franck.
"It seems logical that we look to the left given who we've got there, he's one of the best players in the world so the more he touches the ball (the better).
"We played on the right as well but differently.
"It's not a problem, you always need to find balance with players on the right. On the left with Franck and Evra, there's no need to ask whose going to play there."
One area in which Deschamps seemed to have found the right balance was the lone striker position as Arsenal's Olivier Giroud bagged a brace after retaining his place in the team ahead of Karim Benzema.
The Real Madrid striker did replace Giroud in the second half and even managed to end a goal drought in the French shirt that stretched back 1,222 minutes to June, 2012.
But despite Giroud's decisive contribution to the scoreline, Deschamps refused to guarantee him a starting berth against Finland on Tuesday.
"All 23 players are confident but then (only) 11 start. If you look at the history since I've been coach, Karim has played more than Olivier.
"From the moment I said there's a system that works for us with a lone forward, one starts and the other comes on.
"(Friday) it was Olivier (who started), we'll see for Tuesday but you never know what will happen before November (and the play-offs), one could get a problem.
"We scored four in the second half at Belarus and here six, so we're not going to talk about ineffectiveness (in front of goal).
"I didn't take (Giroud) off because he'd scored two goals and I wanted to give Karim a chance, it was already decided that both would play a half."
Source: AFP
