DBasia.news – Antoine Griezmann’s appearance with his new club, Barcelona, has not been as expected. Griezmann only performed well against Real Betis.
Barcelona spent up to 120 million euros to redeem Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid. The 2018 World Cup champion was expected to appear impressively on the left side of El Barca’s attack line.
In fact, Barcelona have been hunting for Griezmann since the 2017-2018 season. At that time, El Barca was rejected because the player chose to extend his contract with Los Rojiblancos.
Barcelona spent up to 125 million euros to activate Griezmann’s release clause. Not surprisingly, high expectations are pinned on the player.
However, so far, Griezmann is still unable to display his best performance. In the inaugural match of LaLiga against Athletico Bilbao, he was unable to do much. As a result, Barcelona was beaten by a score of 1-0.
Not surprisingly, Barcelona coach, Ernesto Valerde, gave a striking statement to Griezmann. The coach asked Griezmann to show his best performance when played.
“He will have a good move if he gets close to the penalty box to finish the opportunity. However, you have to dominate the match for that to happen,” Ernesto Valverde said as reported by Sport.
“Putting him in the left position because we know he wants to score goals. However, we have a left back and players who can control the match,” he added.
“However, we have high hopes than all the players. He has to look more for the ball in the match,” explained the coach.
Antoine Griezmann made amends in his second match against Real Betis. The French national team player packed two goals plus one assist.
Antoine Griezmann continued to be disappointing when Barcelona faced Osasuna. The 28-year-old player seemed to have disappeared from Blaugrana’s game.
Based on Opta Jose’s notes, from 90 minutes in the field, Griezmann only recorded 30 touches. This amount equals the worst score recorded in May 2015 (Atletico Madrid versus Granada).
If you look at the map movement, Griezmann struggled more in the midfield. In fact, he should have stabbed the opponent’s defense from the wing’s side.
With Lionel Messi’s absence, Griezmann should have been the answer. However, so far, the appearance of the former Real Sociedad player is still unsatisfactory.