Another defender I really like at this World Cup is Antonio Rudiger from Germany, who was one of the strongest defenders I have played with, let alone against!
I hated playing against him in training at Chelsea because he was the same as he was in the game – well, a little more cautious and maybe a little less crazy, but he was still always pinching you and annoying you so much!
If he’s in good shape, he’s one of the best. He hasn’t started every game so far, but if he’s fit, he’ll be a good combination with Jonathan Taom at the back. Together they look strong.
However, the most important thing in any defense is the balance of the team. It doesn’t matter how good you are because you also need midfielders to protect you. If you are open and against fast players, it becomes very difficult.
In this sense, Argentina’s midfield is really strong because they know they need to cover some ground in defense for Lionel Messi, who doesn’t have the legs to do so.
Messi has never been one to chase down opponents with skillful pressing, but that doesn’t matter if behind him their off-the-ball midfield is working hard to protect the back line.
Frenkie de Jong does the same for the Netherlands, and Brazil also have the right balance with Bruno Guimaraes and Casemiro.
We had the same thing with France when we won the World Cup in 2018 with our midfielders N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi. They all worked hard, but if anyone left a gap, N’Golo made up for it.
France are playing with another striker this time, so we’ll have to see if we can still try to score more goals than our opponents without losing cover deep down the pitch.
I feel like we can score goals at any point in the game, but if we can also protect our lead with good defense, that’s a huge asset for any team.
Olivier Giroud spoke to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.