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It’s an occupational hazard for a participant and playmaker of Christian Eriksen’s high quality. He tends to draw man-markers. Simply not usually these of fairly of the calibre of the highest scorer in a European Championships and the second highest in a World Cup 2022. A ahead who price £107million and scored in a World Cup remaining was reinvented as Eriksen’s devoted sentry. “Antoine Griezmann was following him,” the Denmark supervisor Kasper Hjulmand lamented after his aspect’s 2-1 defeat to France.
If that provides an echo of Bobby Charlton marking Franz Beckenbauer, and vice versa, in each 1966 and 1970, it was not all Griezmann was doing. He was helping, for starters: France’s winner got here from a stunning waft of his left foot, curling a cross that Kylian Mbappe compelled over the road. There might need been an equally elegant help earlier, Griezmann supplying the defence-splitting go from his personal half, Mbappe reaching prime gear earlier than he was unceremoniously upended by Andreas Christensen.
Griezmann is extra accustomed to getting on the top of such balls, albeit not fairly on the similar tempo as Mbappe. However this can be a completely different Griezmann; Griezmann 2.0; Griezmann the midfielder. He has lengthy been snug within the No 10 position however now he’s enjoying as a No 8. Didier Deschamps is usually damned with faint reward, a World Cup-winning supervisor deemed overly cautious and largely unoriginal. However whereas Deschamps’ century of French caps introduced a mere 4 targets, Griezmann has greater than 10 occasions as many. But, briefly anyway, he has been shifted into the division his supervisor used to occupy.
He grew to become a one-man answer to 2 issues, serving to compensate for the absence of the injured Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante, which left France missing a midfield, and enabling Deschamps to cram in a quartet of attackers, with Mbappe joined by Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele. Deschamps famous that Brazil had performed with 4 forwards; if France did likewise, it was when their formation was however typically 4-3-3, with an additional man behind the ball. Dembele helped Griezmann out, generally dropping deeper to imagine extra defensive duties, however primarily Deschamps was trusting in his talisman to indicate positional self-discipline. Griezmann has performed in France’s final 69 internationals, a run going again five-and-a-half years, however not often like this.
“I’m asking him for one thing completely different from him from membership stage,” Deschamps mentioned. He had consulted Griezmann earlier than, discussing it along with his gamers, denying it was a knee-jerk choice. However he needed to ask a person with 276 profession targets to compromise his sport. “However the sacrifice is for one motive: he’s so beneficiant,” Deschamps added. “He’s an clever participant, he is ready to make these sacrifices and he brings stability to the crew. We’ve got lots attacking gamers however we have to convey stability. I may have put him up entrance on the fitting as a substitute of Ousmane Dembele however because of his creativeness and his creativity he is ready to play for the others.”
If some strikers do transfer again within the crew as they become old, generally due to a lack of tempo, it’s a measure that may backfire: England scarcely prospered with Wayne Rooney in midfield in Euro 2016, for example. If enjoying for Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid furnishes Griezmann with a piece ethic, Deschamps advised he’s savouring a few of his new duties out of possession. “He loves profitable these balls again,” the France supervisor mentioned. “And he is ready to work wonders along with his left foot and he’s nice on set items as effectively if we’d like him.”
That footballing intelligence was obvious when Griezmann assumed one acquainted place, because the furthest man ahead, and will have taken one other, on the scoresheet: a superbly timed run from deep allowed him to emerge unchecked to satisfy Aurelien Tchouameni’s ball from the centre circle. The next end was wayward, although that was not why Deschamps concluded Griezmann gained’t be a Golden Boot challenger this time. “I think about in his new position he gained’t rating as many targets as he’s used to,” he mentioned.
Mbappe could compensate by getting extra. In a story of two scorers from the 2018 remaining, the youthful man produced probably the most eye-catching efficiency. “He’s an distinctive participant,” mentioned Deschamps, after Mbappe drove France into the final 16. “He’s a frontrunner. Kylian will not be very talkative however he is sort of a steam practice on the pitch.”
Mbappe is France’s Practice a Grand Vitesse, powered by steam in a single respect, by Griezmann the new-look midfielder in one other. And to this point, Deschamps’ shock change of path has stored France on monitor for glory once more.
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