I feel like more than identity, it's more about getting younger players to show up. It's obvious that they built a good squad before this one, and they won and they were all happy about it. But then they ended up losing and not even going to world cup as well, because some of their good players retired.
I feel like they will do better during this euro cup compared to not even be in world cup, they will be at least in this, but they won't win it. They just need a whole new generation to grow up and be better as well. If they can do that then they could end up with a better result. How did France become this good? They found players that are great and close to each other at age, Italy needs the same thing, kids at young 20's to play and be good together.
You can't compare France to any of the other UEFA teams. During the last one decade or so, every other UEFA team has become weaker. Netherlands and Germany are prime examples. But France is probably the only UEFA team that has got stronger. They have a steady supply of young players and at this point their best player is the 24-year old Kylian Mbappé. Italy on the other hand is a relatively young team (despite the rapidly ageing population in that country), but their younger players are yet to prove their worth at the international level.
Maybe so, but maybe we need to remember that it depends on a single game as well. They might be better than everyone else, but in a single game they could end up losing and could be out of the tournament for good. Not during qualifiers of course but that doesn't mean that it should be like that at all times neither, it should be a lot better.
I personally believe that the best thing to do in this case is to keep it going as much as they possibly could and get a big win. If they can do that then it is great but if they can't then it will be a bigger disappointment than ever. I know that not many people will have a chance to win it, like if Spain loses nobody will care, but if France loses that will be even worse, and disappointing. So there is more pressure on France than any other team currently, and that could cause trouble.