Antoine Griezmann

[Judoman]

No one said he is. Sometimes I feel the majority of people have reading comprehension problems.

The issue at hand is HE is on our team. Whether you like it or not. After watching various different compositions of our midfield line up, it is quite obvious our strongest midfield consists of De Jong as DM and Arthur in one of the CM roles. Arthur is not attacking oriented, he is possession oriented. We need an attacking minded midfielder in our third slot. Vidal can do this, but he is not a starter. He's not disciplined, he's the sort of player you put in when you need to try something different. He runs around like a chicken with his head cut off, and that is useful in certain situations. Roberto is not the answer. Neither is Alena. Rakitic is not either. That leaves us with Puig who is not ready.

Griezman may have never played as a CM before, but he wouldn't play that in a traditional sense for us. We have lots of coverage in De Jong and Arthur now. A player like Coutinho looks great on paper in that role, but he is weak defensively and his work rate was surprisingly bad. Griezman is the exact opposite. He has the work rate and is very good defensively for an offensive minded player. He could thrive in that role, which considering how deep Arthur enjoys playing, would look more like a 3-1-2-4.

People whine about buying players and playing them where they aren't suited, but yet here they are. You know what is worse than that? Continuing to play them there instead of creating a role that they are much more suited for, because at the end of the day he is far more talented than any other player we have that could potentially partner up with De Jong and Arthur.

Agreed, he should be tested in midfield if Valverde persists with 4-3-3. I wonder how he would link with Messi though. Leo likes to slide back to AMC, but having 2 great players in that zone could be an asset with the right coach.
In any case, Busq shouldn t be a starter anymore, but i m pretty sure it will take a long time before we see that change.

 

[Messigician]

Bench this clown. We didn't pay 125m for someone who can press and offer nothing else. We woukd get the same result playing Vidal LW

 

[gasgas]

........................mats
Semedo....Pique......Todibo...Alba
Griezmann...De jong.......Arthur
Messi........Suarez..........Ansu Fati/Dembele

This looks good to me

 

[Messigician]

........................mats
Semedo....Pique......Todibo...Alba
Griezmann...De jong.......Arthur
Messi........Suarez..........Ansu Fati/Dembele

This looks good to me

He's not a CM, he has never played CM, why do people think he can play CM?

 

[gasgas]

He's not a CM, he has never played CM, why do people think he can play CM?

There's nothing wrong with tryig something new.
It might work better than him at LW.

We'll never know till we try

 

[Respekt_III]

looks like everyone's decided that the 2 recent goals is enough to cement suarez as the undisputed #N1 for the next 3 years, Fun times.

 

[BBZ8800]

looks like everyone's decided that the 2 recent goals is enough to cement suarez as the undisputed #N1 for the next 3 years, Fun times.

Or...
He should play this season as we don't have any other options as a No9 and in the next summer we can do something crazy...
Let's say actually buying a player who is a No9, who is fast, can dribble and is a decent finisher.
But that is probably too much to ask from this board, since they will go for a 180M Neymar and leave us with 34 years old Suarez as a No9 or average No9 in Griezmann.

Anyway, I did have faith in Griezmann as a LW, not as a No9.
But that is because I remember him being at least somewhat fast in his Atletico's days.
Ok, he was never extremely fast, but he was decent in the past.
Yet, a current version of Griezmann is a way slower version of himself, compared to 3-4-5 years ago.

I have watched some older videos today, and he looked faster back then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsKKjzsoYBM

** Aynway, is it just me, or was he has faster 4 years ago?

Also, regarding him being a classic No9, even at Atletico, he had usually Mandzukic, Torres, Diego Costa or Morata as a true No9, and he was always a weird Cm-Cam-winger-No9 type of a player who was creating counters and chances for SOMEONE ELSE (Mandzu, Torres, Costa).
He was always the best in creating chances for SOMEONE ELSE.
Yet, people expect that the current, older, slower and even less lethal version of Griezmann will suddenly become that guy (SOMEONE ELSE from the previous line of text) in our team, who will score goals.

 

[Bulgroz]

How about trying him as a 9 before deciding he can't do it? He's probably one of the 2-3 best trequartista in the world, and it's obviously his best position. But he's also played as a sole 9. He wasn't as amazing sure. He's "only" one of the 15 best 9 in the world. Still an upgrade on Suarez.

(before anyone starts arguing about "best 2-3" and "best 15": no, I don't have a list ready of those 15 players, and it would be subjective anyway. I just mean that he's a great 9, and I don't know why people discard him for this position just because he's even better with a traditional CF next to him.)

 

[jamrock]

Him playing him midfield is a non starter.

He is Messi lite, which we never should have bought while messi is in the team.

It's either striker or he learns to play as an inside forward from the left.

But our team would be so slow up top

 

[DonAK]

In a 4-2-3-1 which was Valverde's formation at Athletic he can try to fit Griezmann in at CAM or at worst at the RW with Messi centrally so you can have Dembele or Ansu at the LW and Suarez as the CF.

Leaves the midfield light with Arthur and de Jong, but it's worth experimenting with in some games, because at the end of the day Valverde just gotta find a way to fit Griezmann into the team. We're not getting far into the CL without him as you cannot rely on Suarez to score goals in the competition no matter what he did on Wednesday.

 

[te amo barca]

In a 4-2-3-1 which was Valverde's formation at Athletic he can try to fit Griezmann in at CAM or at worst at the RW with Messi centrally so you can have Dembele or Ansu at the LW and Suarez as the CF.

Leaves the midfield light with Arthur and de Jong, but it's worth experimenting with in some games, because at the end of the day Valverde just gotta find a way to fit Griezmann into the team. We're not getting far into the CL without him as you cannot rely on Suarez to score goals in the competition no matter what he did on Wednesday.

doubt EV has the guts to try that. IMO it would solve many problems of the right side... With Messi gravitating towards the center, Griezmann could occupy the vacant space on the right wing to help out the RB. They would interchange their positions constantly, obviously and also combine well, each possessing exquisite one touch passing skills. It really sucks that Griezmann is not a great dribbler though, it would make at least some sense to stick him on the wing if he were because he is not as fast as he was 5-6 years ago. I do think that he would be more efficient on the right wing though, at least he would be able to cut inside and pick a penetrating pass/shoot from there. An attacking coach would surely try this at least against a bottom La Liga side at the Camp Nou.

Who knows, maybe Valverde will surprise us all and try this, seeing how well Arthur and De Jong performed as a double pivot.

 

[Co0ter]

Dembele/Ansu- Suarez- Messi
--‐---------------------Griezman
---------------Arthur------------De Jong

Arthur and De Jong are great coverage, while Griezman is nowhere close to a liability defensively. He is also set up to create and attack from where he is most comfortable, his pressing is also much more useful centrally than far out on the wing. Having a fast player on the wing also gives him and outlet and will create space centrally, much like Dembele did when he came in last game. It is the best way to utilize our best players, and playing them where they are at their best. No Dembele on the RW. No Griezman on the LW. It's a balanced yet attacking team.

 

[DonAK]

Would have been even better if we had an athletic CB instead of Lenglet.

 

[Messigician]

Barcelona reportedly want to use Griezmann as a part of a potential deal for Neymar’s return in the summer of 2020. [le10sport] https://t.co/6OYeAtP08J

Ah shit here we go again

 

[CatalinR10]

Poor dude came here thinking he has a better chance winning a CL , wants to give it his all , ends up in the end being used as a currency for a guy 50% of the fans don't want him back.


Actually sickening.