Griezmann doubles up with France

In the summer of 2019, Barcelona paid a fee of 120 million euros for Antoine Griezmann, who was then the start of Atletico Madrid and France. It's worth remembering that a year earlier in 2018, Los Cules had wanted to sign the French forward, but in a documentary, produced by Gerard Pique, he announced that he was staying in the Spanish capital.

The French international formed an attacking trident with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Furthermore, everything possible from within the Barcelona offices to bring back Neymar, but a lack of money made it impossible to sign the Brazilian and satisfy the desires of Messi and Suarez who longed for days gone by.

With Ernesto Valverde at the controls, Griezmann played most of his minutes on the left wing, as if he was a winger. He had to play the role that Neymar held for so long, yet it was a role that was so specific to the Brazilian given his greater capacity to overlap and get forward than the 'Little Prince'.

Two combined factors in Quique Setien's arrival and Luis Suarez's knee injury, Griezmann saw his position slightly changed towards the centre, but in reality his situation hardly changed.

As matches passed, the former Real Betis coach lost confidence in him and it became common to see Griezmann on the bench as a substitute. The season ended with the disastrous 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, a result which condemned the Blaugrana to their first season without a single title since 2007/08.

Griezmann had scored 15 goals and contributed four assists in 48 games (3,496 minutes). When looked at mathematically, this shows he participated in a goal every 184 minutes of play. The start of the 2020/21 season has been even worse with the forward not being involved in a single goal in three appearances.

On the other hand, with the French team he continues to produce great performances, leaving fans with spectacular memories. When he is in the famous shirt of Les Bleus, his face lights up. He seems to enjoy football. He plays behind the centre forward which is usually Olivier Giroud. He enjoys the freedom of movement and shows his desire for teamwork. Deschamps gives him far more responsibility and the player thanked him for this after the victory over Croatia.

"The coach knows where to put me, so I took advantage of the situation, this position and having the confidence of the coach and my teammates," Griezmann declared.

This response appeared a direct answer to criticism labelled at him by Ronald Koeman in the wake of Barcelona's draw with Sevilla, where the French forward missed a number of chances.

"Given his quality, he had to score one of the two chances he had," Koeman stated in his post-match press conference.

In 2018, in Russia, Griezmann was the leader of France and a world champion. In 2016, he was named the best player at the European Championship. With Les Bleus he feels much more at home. He manages the role of leader on the pitch with ease. In his international career he has scored 32 goals in 82 matches, yet since the last World Cup he has scored 13 and delivered 14 assists in 34 appearances, playing a total of 2,408 minutes. This equates to a goal involvement every 89 minutes.

To conclude, he needs exactly one less match with the French national team to replicate his production for Barcelona.