Thierry Henry has named Michael Olise as France’s most important player ahead of Kylian Mbappe after they beat Sweden to reach the World Cup round of 16.
Didier Deschamps’ side delivered another impressive display as two goals from Mbappe, plus a strike from Bradley Barcola, sealed the victory in the round of 32 against Sweden at the MetLife Stadium on Tuesday.
France will now play Paraguay in the World Cup round of 16 on Saturday.
Mbappe, meanwhile, has pulled level with Lionel Messi with six goals at the World Cup this summer, meanwhile Olise leads the way with for the most assists in the tournament with five in four matches.
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Henry, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, believes Olise should be regarded as France’s most important player and insists the Bayern Munich midfielder’s defensive contribution should not go unnoticed.
‘What he does off the ball is second to none,’ Henry told Fox Sports.
‘Because people always stay on what a guy does on the ball, usually, when you’re that kind of guy, technical, you forget about your defensive duty. He doesn’t, he thinks about the game, the way he goes about the game, Michael is a freak.
‘The way he sees stuff is just not the same as others can see stuff. If things don’t happen the way he likes to happen, sometimes he drifts a bit out of the game because he sees everything so perfectly and so quickly that if you’re not on his wave sometimes he gets annoyed.
‘But what a player, I had the privilege to coach him. Sometimes he was doing stuff in training and you have to hold yourself from going, ‘wow’, because as a coach you just can’t do that, you talk to your assistant, ‘did you see what he just did?’. And then you say, ‘come back, come back, come back, let’s go guys’.
‘This guy is on another planet, he is just different.
‘MVP will always be Kylian, because he will put numbers no one can do, but the most important player is Michael Olise.’
Henry also believes Deschamps has found the right ‘balance’ in his France side by playing Olise in a central role behind Mbappe.
‘A great team effort, I try to explain to people what we do off the ball is also important,’ Henry said.
‘At the beginning of the game they were talking about it was the first time Didier Deschamps went with four offensive players, it’s because three of them are running a lot off the ball.
‘What Dembele does, what Barcola does, and what Michael Olise does, I think he is the one who recovered the most balls, Michael Olise, so when you think about it offensively and what he does defensively.
‘What Aurelien Tchouameni said, ‘we played well’, defensively and offensively, do not underestimate that. What I like from this French team is we are solid and the balance is right.
‘I always said I prefer Olise as a No.10 and Dembele on the right, you can see how the team is a bit more balance when that happens.’
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