Far be it from us to tell a World Cup-winning head coach what to do… but Eduardo Camavinga is playing left-back for France against Tunisia.
Strange, huh? It makes sense in a way, though. The Real Madrid central midfield star is one of the most dynamic tacklers in the squad, possesses considerable pace and he's naturally left-footed. With Lucas Hernandez ruled out of the tournament in Les Bleus' opening fixture against Australia, his brother Theo is the only natural left-back in the squad. It makes sense to wrap him in cotton wool, given that the French are through to the next round already.
Still, Camavinga's club colleague Ferland Mendy is almost certainly watching on, wondering how this is happening… especially given that Didier Deschamps only took 25 men to the tournament, when another Real Madrid star, Karim Benzema, was ruled out of the competition on the eve of the tournament.
Camavinga is learning on the job, all right. While much of the BBC's half-time coverage consisted of analysis of the 20-year-old's performance thus far and some of the positional teething problems he's had, it's fair to say the stats back up Camavinga.
The makeshift left-back had 62 touches in the first half, and won nine duels, three fouls and possession seven times. Each of those were the most of anyone on the field – with SofaScore rating him as the best player of the first half.
It's been an impressive performance, especially considering that natural defenders in Benjamin Pavard and William Saliba were left out of the starting line-up for Camavinga. Maybe he'll get a chance in midfield later in the tournament.
