France team – Blues – For Antoine Griezmann, the alert rating has been reached

1274 minutes exactly. Not one less. This is the time that separates Antoine Griezmann from his last goal. The Blues striker has not scored for 20 matches and his last achievement dates back to January during a King’s Cup match against Rayo Majadahonda. For a player of his caliber, this silence seems like an eternity. “I want to be important and decisive, it’s not normal to go so many games without scoring“, he admitted himself in AS.

Never has he gone through such a crossing of the desert. Former Atlético playmaker, leader of a Champions League finalist and Europa League winner, Griezmann has slipped throughout the season in the hierarchy. He even finished out of Diego Simeone’s XI, an outcome unimaginable when he was walking La Liga.

The December muscle injury and January relapse may, in part, determine the outlines of the black hole. But today, a real doubt surrounds its real level. Will we ever see the great Griezmann of the Blues and Atlético again? Until last year, his performances in the France team protected his status in the selection. The most important blue between 2016 and 2022, he has service records that protect him from any epidermal reaction. Didier Deschamps knows too much what he owes him to put him in the closet as soon as the tide turns in the club. After all, other players get the same treatment (Raphaël Varane, Paul Pogba).

Three times the average over the last seven matches

The problem is that today Griezmann, unlike Pogba, is much less crucial for the France team. However, unlike Varane, it is the whole system of this team which has been built to put it in the best conditions. Is the game still worth the candle? Since the Final Four of the League of Nations in the fall, he has not shone much unlike his attacking comrades Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema. In his last seven matches, he has only had three times the average for Eurosport ratings.

The reason for the 3-4-3

The 3-4-3 system showed its limits against the Danes, its raison d’être is however clear: to put the three attackers in a chair. From the moment when the Madrilenian is no longer essential, the maintenance of the system must be questioned. Especially since in the middle, three men have the stuff of holders. Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kanté, of course. But also Aurélien Tchouaméni, the sensation of the France team since the end of the Euro and undoubtedly the best French midfielder of the season. Antoine Griezmann has five months to recover and extinguish the debates as he has done in every international competition since 2016. For this glorious past, it would be unfair to bury it today. But the alert level is reached.