Didier Deschamps reflected on a positive year for France, who went unbeaten in 14 of 15 matches after downing Sweden 1-0 in Marseille.
The French lost only to eventual World Cup winners Germany, the defeat seeing them crash out of the illustrious tournament in Brazil at the quarter-final stage.
It was the lone blotch on France s 2014, which culminated in a late 1-0 victory over Erik Hamren s Sweden on Tuesday with stand-in skipper Raphael Varane heading home from Antoine Griezmann s corner in the 84th minute.
Varane wore the armband, as goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was rested.
Deschamps said his side grew in confidence after storming through the group stages at the World Cup, and conceded they needed to improve their flexibility.
There were different periods, we played 15 games, [and only] one loss to world champion, Deschamps said, as reported by l Equipe.
There was the World Cup this summer where players have taken a lot of confidence.
The team spirit is there and we went into September with the same intentions against prestigious opponents [Spain, Serbia].
I need to change the team to match another with different systems. This goes against automation in the short term but we must go through it.
The group continues to grow while keeping the same goal, even if they are friendlies, to get the win and do very good things.
Deschamps said their opening results in Brazil, a 3-0 thrashing of Honduras, set them up for their strong tournament.
If we have to isolate a [special] period that is the World Cup. There were the best teams [against us], he said.
It is through these games that the group was aware of its qualities, and the players, they could do great things together.
The first appointment against Honduras was the most important match, as they allowed us to move on.
