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For Antoine Griezmann, the primary few months of this season drifted uncomfortably near indignity. His standing at Atlético Madrid, it appeared, had diminished to the extent that he was a mere curiosity, some of the celebrated forwards of his period decreased to one thing between a meme and a punchline.
The issue was not, actually, of his personal making. A number of years in the past, Griezmann had left Atlético — the staff that had helped to make him a star — for Barcelona. The transfer, introduced in a shiny, LeBron James-style documentary that did little to endear him to anybody, didn’t work out.
The Barcelona he had joined was creaking and fading, the boring rumble of thunder gathering within the distance. Griezmann performed nicely solely in flashes and flurries, not the form of return anticipated — or wanted, given the membership’s growing desperation — for his eye-watering price. Final yr, he was permitted to return on mortgage to Atlético, his purgatory in Catalonia at an finish.
The issues, although, didn’t finish. His mortgage deal ran for 2 seasons. If he performed a sure variety of minutes within the second marketing campaign, Atlético can be compelled to pay Barcelona a set charge to retain him completely. Unwilling to commit and hopeful of decreasing the worth, Atlético sought to discover a loophole.
Diego Simeone, the membership’s supervisor, began introducing Griezmann solely as a second-half substitute. He performed half-hour right here, 20 minutes there. Atlético by no means confirmed the rationale, however that Griezmann was being held again as a negotiating approach appeared obvious.
That individual problem was, fortunately, sorted out earlier than the World Cup. However the injury — at the very least to Griezmann’s popularity — had been completed. Barcelona didn’t need Griezmann. Atlético did, however solely on a budget. He was now not the impish, creative ahead who had been considered one of many best gamers on this planet only some years earlier. Now, he was an afterthought.
After which got here Qatar. Griezmann is just not probably the most celebrated member of France’s attacking line — that title would go to Kylian Mbappé — and he’s not probably the most prolific, because of the evergreen Olivier Giroud. He might not have the world at his toes, like Aurélien Tchouámeni. However there’s a compelling case to be made that Griezmann is an important member of Didier Deschamps’s squad.
Griezmann will not be France’s star, however he’s definitely its mind. It’s Griezmann who gives creativeness, and guile, and craft. That’s what has all the time appealed to Deschamps about him, what has helped him accrue 72 consecutive appearances for his nation over the previous six years.
At this World Cup, although, it’s one other trait that has made Griezmann invaluable. After accidents to Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kanté and Karim Benzema, Deschamps needed to assemble a brand new method for the French on the fly. He needed to recalibrate his midfield and alter the positioning of his assault. Griezmann is the one who makes all of it work. He has the instinct to change how he performs, and the place he performs, to maintain issues operating easily, and the flexibility to ensure he thrives wherever he’s required.
Griezmann has all the time had that present, in fact. He has, at varied phases in his profession, performed on each wings, as a lone striker, and as a central, inventive drive. At membership stage, it’s attainable — even possible — that his versatility has held him again. Europe’s main groups now play in high-definition methods, ones during which the specialists required for each function are recruited at huge price. That Griezmann is just not fairly so simply pigeonholed may, in some lights, appear to be a disadvantage.
In worldwide soccer, although, it’s fairly the alternative. Even Deschamps, beneficiary of the fruit of the game’s most prolific expertise farm, has to regulate and adapt to what’s obtainable to him; he can’t merely purchase an answer to any explicit drawback. In these circumstances, a participant like Griezmann, somebody who could be regardless of the coach wants him to be, is a uncommon and treasured factor: a Swiss Military knife that serves, fairly properly, as a key.
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