France

Raymond Domenech’s team did not enjoy the best qualifying campaign and were forced to rely on Thierry Henry’s handball in order to edge past the Republic of Ireland in their two-legged play-off clash last autumn.

France will face South Africa, Mexico and Uruguay at the World Cup and Malouda knows they have improvements to make after winning the World Cup in 1998 and contesting the final last time around in Germany against Italy (France 15/2 – To Reach Final).

The Chelsea flyer told the Guardian: “The problem is, after what we did in 2006 – and of course there was a great generation in 1998 and 2000 – expectations are very high.

“And the Euro in 2008 was a disaster. So when you are in a bad situation everything is coming out, and people are pointing the finger.

“The World Cup is really close and honestly we have a lot of problems to fix. When there is tension, when there is high pressure games, you need characters.

“You need people to come out and say ‘I will take responsibility’.”

Malouda, at 29 years of age and with 54 appearances for his country, is possibly playing in his last World Cup and along with William Gallas (81), Eric Abidal (55) and Thierry Henry (121) he is one of four players in Domenech’s 23-man squad to have won over a half-century of caps.

Veterans like Patrick Vieira, Claude Makelele and Lilian Thuram are no longer around and Malouda knows there is a vacuum to fill in terms of leadership, both on and off the pitch.

He added: “Honestly we have a lot of problems. We have to talk about a lot of things.

“But for that you need someone to take the first step. Guys like (Patrick) Vieira and (Claude) Makelele who can take the lead. If they are not there, somebody has to do it.”

France kick off their World Cup Group A campaign against Uruguay on Friday before games against South Africa and Mexico (France 11/10 – Group A Winner).

Domenech will bow out after the World Cup with his successor, France legend Laurent Blanc, already confirmed in the post for the start of the Euro 2012 qualifiers (12/1 – Euro 2012 Outright).

France will face games against Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania and Luxembourg in Group D (Les Bleus 4/9 – Group Winner).

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