Kylian Mbappe's is scoring France's goals but he isn't their best forward at this World Cup
Perhaps it’s a tactical thing – Griezmann has always been slightly position-less . Perhaps it’s a question of personality: he comes across as slightly sulky, but there is no contract that elite footballers should sign that obliges them to guffaw and grin when celebrating a goal. Griezmann lacks some of the PR super-spin too, certainly that those around him in Spain and France have afflicted us with. He’s just sort of always been there until the point when he won’t be any more.
It has been an odd few months for Griezmann, the unwitting and unwilling pawn in a political game between two of Spain’s biggest clubs. A two-year loan agreement dictated that Atletico Madrid would have to pay Barcelona £35m to make the move permanent if Griezmann played more than 45 minutes in more than 50 per cent of games. Cue a farcical early season, where Griezmann became the 30-minute man and no more. He deserved better. A solution has mercifully been reached.
Were Kante and Pogba both fit, who knows where or if Griezmann would have started in this team. Perhaps off the right, a selection tinged with disappointment because it would come at the expense of Dembele. Perhaps in the hole behind Benzema, making those late runs into the box and beyond the striker that he has made his specialty. But then the midfield would be a man light.
Without that pair, Griezmann has been converted into an auxiliary midfielder in a role that can best be described as “freedom with caveats”. With the protection of Aurélien Tchouaméni andbehind him, Griezmann packs up his compass, map and supplies and goes off in search of mischief and joy. It is an experience to watch live.
There is Griezmann, somehow the deepest French player as they counter attack because he collected the ball so near his own goal. There he is again, bursting beyond the last man but firing over. Now he’s intercepting passes and pressing. Oh look, he’s popped up on the right this time and crossed for the winning goal. There’s a weird thing where it simultaneously never looks like he’s sprinting and yet he’s always where you want him to be.
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