Player Focus: Young French Left-Backs Lighting Up Ligue 1

It's been a curious start to the Ligue 1 season and there has been a curious trend in terms of the top performers thus far. Of the 20 highest rated players 6 are left-backs at present, including the top two in France's top-flight. The fact that all six are French and four are aged 23 or under will certainly be encouraging for followers of the national team.

It's not been uncommon for France to produce a crop of players that play in the same position all at once. Ahead of hosting and subsequently winning the 1998 World Cup Aime Jacquet had to choose between three up and coming young strikers. He opted to select the 20-year-old pairing of Trezeguet and Henry and leave out the prodigious talent of a teenage Nicolas Anelka with things panning out pretty well.

In recent years the positional glut has been in central midfield, particularly holding players, and it's an area in which les Bleus are still inundated with talent. Didier Deschamps's plentiful options of fully-capped internationals in that position run into double figures.

It seems that the next generation of youngsters coming through are hoping to take a place in the side that has tended to be nailed down by one player over the past 15-20 years at any one time. When you think of the French left-backs over the nineties and noughties the names Lizarazu, Abidal and Evra spring to mind in the number 3 spot, so much so that a player of Gael Clichy's talent has amassed just 20 caps by the age of 29 as far as the latter is concerned.

Patrice Evra is still fist choice, it seems, but PSG-poached Lucas Digne is now hot on his heels. The 21-year-old will need to make the left-back spot at club level his own before cementing his place in the national side but the signs indicate it's a development in process. Nevertheless the form of three French youth team players this season mean Digne cannot rest on his laurels.

Layvin Kurzawa (Monaco)

A Monaco side devoid of their Colombian heartbeat are languishing in the realms of mid-table mediocrity. Most would have predicted a challenging campaign but their dismal start has still surprised. The one man, however, who can take real credit from his early season form, coming off the back of a hugely impressive first full season in the top-flight, is Layvin Kurzawa.

The 22-year-old is WhoScored.com's top rated player in Ligue 1 thus far, garnering a score of 7.80 having reached an excellent average of 7.44 last season. Kurzawa has registered 2 assists in 7 appearances and is a superb creative outlet from the back, with 2.9 key passes per game and 2.7 accurate crosses per game leading the way in the entire division. With 2.3 successful dribbles per match he's a full-back in the modern mould still able to couple such figures with an impressive defensive output, averaging 2.9 tackles and 2.1 interceptions per game.

Jordan Amavi (Nice)

If Kurzawa's progression has been projected to a degree after last season's exploits the same could not really be said of the player currently sitting second in Ligue 1's rankings. 20-year-old Nice full-back Jordan Amavi has started every game for the club this season and secured a rating of 7.74, having made just 9 league starts in 2013/14, repaying the faith shown in him by manager Claude Puel and then some to date.

Amavi is another athletic type who can carry the ball out from the back, with 1.9 dribbles per game, but it's his defensive attributes that have really caught the eye this season, earning him a first cap for the France U21 side. Along with boasting an excellent 3.1 tackles per game Amavi leads the league as a whole when it comes to interceptions, with a huge 4.6 average highlighting an exceptional reading of the game at such a tender age.

Benjamin Mendy (Marseille)

Sitting pretty at Ligue 1's summit after a run of 6 successive victories, Marcelo Bielsa's new look Marseille seem to be the real deal once more. A key player in OL's early season success has been Benjamin Mendy, whose versatility has made him a favourite of the new boss at the beginning of his highly-anticipated tenure. Mendy only turned 20 in July but has flourished in the Argentine's attacking system.

With 7 starts to date, four have come at left-back, two in a wing-back role and one in central midfield. Wherever he has played Mendy has looked comfortable this season and as much will bode well for his international prospects. Thus far the youngster's delivery into the box has really shone, with per game figures of 2 accurate crosses and 2 key passes helping him to 2 assists. With a solid average of 2.4 tackles to boot Mendy is another who has the tools to go very far.

The race is very much on to replace the ageing Evra in the national set up and while Lucas Digne may be in pole position right now he'll have to work hard to replicate his positional predecessors' longevity in the blue jersey. The competition is no doubt a welcome one for Deschamps.

Who do you think will prove to be Digne's stiffest competition for the left-back spot for France once Evra retires? Let us know in the comments below