Antonie Griezmann is currently in his second term with FC Barcelona and just like most of last season, the frenchman performance has not justified his price tag and there is an increasing demand from Barcelona fans to see him leave.
At Oltsports, we look into what could have really been the reason for his worst decline.
1. Lack of good sporting project: Griezmann has never and will never be a Barcelona material, he is not a flash type of player, nothing so flashy about him, no dribbling, pace and such attacker hardly excel at Barcelona. The major highlight in Griezmann play is his work rate.
2. Not wanted by most players and fans of the Club: In the summer of the 2018/2019 season, Barcelona were hell bent on signing Griezmann and sources within the club believes the deal is a closed one only for Griezmann to turn it down in the most absurd way: A video documentary. At this stage most Barcelona fans and some officials within the club were annoyed with him that fast forward to the following summer and he ended up joining the club, he was not warmly welcomed.
Its little or no surprise Barcelona talisman and captain Lionel Messi disapprove the move then as most high hierarchy within the squad demand for the return of Neymar and this is evident on the pitch as Leo Messi sometimes ignore Griezmann un the first half of the 2019/2020 season this doing little to help the Frenchman’s degrading confidence.
3. Being played out of position: Griezmann’s lack of pace and dribbling ability makes him suited for an AM/SS role but he is being played as a winger at Barcelona and the only tangible thing he offers playing there is covering for the fullback. His abilities makes him more suited as a No.10 where he plays for the France National team but at Barcelona that position belongs solely to Lionel Messi.
In summary, Griezmann at Barcelona is just an example of a wrong player playing under a wrong system with little or no sense of belonging.
Ishaku Adams Victor