Marcel Desailly (right) celebrates France winning the World Cup in 1998

And on Sunday their former captain, Marcel Desailly, added to the sense of crisis by declaring that he did not expect Les Bleus to even reach the last 16, never mind have any prospect of winning the tournament. He tipped Uruguay and a resurgent South Africa, who beat Denmark over the weekend, to proceed from Group A.

"While I hope for South Africa and France to get into the second round, I think South Africa and Uruguay will make it," said Desailly, who played for France in their 1998 World Cup Cup-winning side. His assessment struck a chord. And, as ever it seems, that involves an attack on the coach, Raymond Domenech, who will be replaced after the World Cup by Desailly's former defensive partner, Laurent Blanc.

Domenech's resilience, given the criticisms he has almost constantly faced, is remarkable and, indeed, last Friday's friendly against China was his 76th match in charge, overtaking Michel Hidalgo's record. Desailly, however, believes that he will have just three more games after the embarrassing 1-0 loss in Reunion, the island in the Indian Ocean, to what was effectively a Chinese B team.

"I saw France lose to China and, from what I have seen, I'm almost sure they can't win the World Cup," he said.

Indeed, of the three warm-up matches France have played they have won one, drawn one, lost one. The victory was narrow, 2-1 over Costa Rica, while the draw was against Tunisia and, more alarmingly, performances have deteriorated, rather than improved.

"I was not surprised when they had difficulties against Tunisia because of their training at the time: they were working on their endurance and speed, so they were tired," Desailly said. "They are now at the end of their preparation and should be at their best, but I'm annoyed that we still don't have a starting line-up and are undecided over tactics. A team that's going to win the World Cup should already know these things."

Sympathy for France will be scant given the way in which they reached South Africa – that Thierry Henry handball in the play-off against the Republic of Ireland – but they have dealt with adversity and disorganisation before to impress at the tournament, reaching the final four years ago, of course.

"Because the competition has not started, we want a miracle to happen like in 2006, but this is a different team to the one which went to Germany," Desailly said.

"In 2006, the spine of the team was Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, Claude Makelele, Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry – experienced players. The young generation should be bringing enthusiasm but it's just not there.

"When we won the World Cup in 1998, we had experience and maturity. I believe the new generation is even better than ours, but they are good players in a team and not leaders like Patrice Evra, who is now captain. You need a team of leaders to win the World Cup."

It would – with Henry marginalised in recent months – point to the possibility of another player rebellion such as happened in Germany, especially as Domenech does not appear to either know his best team or his preferred formation.

Of late the coach has tended towards a 4-3-3 with Nicolas Anelka flanked by Sidney Govou and Franck Ribery, which has forced the two most in-form players, Florent Malouda and Yoann Gourcuff, back into midfield. It may not last. And neither, Desailly believes, will France.