Certain players, as they age and their physical and technical capabilities fade, remain wrapped in their egotistical impressions of their ability, urging the team to be moulded around the player they were rather than the one they are.
Others withdraw the façade, accept the present and re-work their capabilities to the benefit of the team.
Think Leo Messi, who even in his twilight years possesses divine and ethereal intelligence and ability even if the speed of execution and movement is half what it was during his prime.
Or Toni Kroos, who began his career as a number ten but slow removed himself further and further away from the box until he became arguably one of the greatest deep-lying playmakers football has ever seen, effortless and intently shifting the ball across the pitch, moving opposition pawns around like a chess grandmaster waiting for the perfect check mate moment.
Other examples exist outside of the top five per cent of footballers. Take Cesar Azpilicueta who realised his physical fallibility rendered him near incapable of holding down the entire right flank during Antonio Conte’s spell at Chelsea and selflessly shifted infield to an unnatural centre-half position, starting every match in their 2016-17 title charge.
If you have watched France for even a split-second at this World Cup you’d have notice the prodigious Kylian Mbappe, just 23-years old at a legacy-solidifying tournament, inspiring as much fear in opponents as he does hope in his countrymen, embarrassing defenders before him with his cocktail of pace, touch, intelligence, and prowess. Scoring wonderful goals with armies of defenders before him as he did against Poland in the round of 16.
Just as well, you’d be forgiven for watching France without noticing Antoine Griezmann. He is conducting himself in a very un-Antoine manner, but that’s because the team needs it from him. France’s number seven is enacting a masterclass in self-sacrifice in Qatar.
He isn’t precisely the player he was four years ago when his side became world champions for just the second time Griezmann was an enterprising, dazzling attacking force who was outscored only by Harry Kane. Nor, six years ago at the European champions on home soil when he was by-far the tournaments standout performer as a France fell at the final hurdle to Portugal. Because he doesn’t need to be that version of himself.
Goals come from Mbappe – who has five so far – and Olivier Giroud – who has four. He scarcely needs to be the attacking force driving France towards opponents and beyond. Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele have taken that role upon themselves to an excellent level. He needed to be an entirely different footballer.
Much was made at the beginning of the tournament about France’s Qatari absentees. Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante, just the second midfielder partnership to deliver the World Cup trophy to Paris, Christopher Nkunku, the lights-out Leipzig attacker, and reigning Balloon D’or winner, Karim Benzema.
Kante’s replacement was locked in from the get-go with Aurelien Tchouameni filling those boots seamlessly. Nkunku’s starting birth was never guaranteed, while the same was argued for Benzema given the importance of the selfless Giroud.
But missing the former Manchester United midfielder was, in the opinion of the masses, too great a deficit to account for. Unlike his club career, which stalled from time to time, Pogba transcended to a new plane of ability when donning the ocean blue of France. Each big game warranted a fine Pogba performance, most famously during the most recent World Cup final a game Griezmann won man-of-the-match in had Pogba received the honour little furore would be spewed.
(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
In the absence of the Juventus midfielder at this World Cup, the Atletico Madrid man has heaved France’s hefty creative burden atop his petite shoulders with dignity, delivering performance after performance littered with imaginative output. He leads the tournament in assists and big chances created, no attacking player has made more tackles, and only Messi has made more key passes.
Despite listed as an attacking midfielder for every match he’s started in, his role is more akin to a number-eight as he managed to complete the jobs of two players – Pogba’s as well as his own.
It’s not so much what the stat’s reveal, they exist to ratified what the eyes, which never lie according to the infamous Tony Montana, view.
Whenever France finds themselves entrenched in their opponents half it is Griezmann dropping into space, playing short, quick passes between the lines and out wide as if he’d spent his whole life occupying such a role, pulling opponent apart slowly, like an anaconda coiling itself around its prey, tightening itself gradually until the kill is complete.
When his side lose the ball, it is Griezmann storming back to apply pressure, or commit a tackle, foul, or interception which slows or nullifies the opposition break. Essentially, it is Griezmann everywhere at all times doing everything because that’s what the team needs from him.
They don’t need him only bursting into the box, playing off the defender’s shoulder, performing the second-striker duties so familiar to him. France and Deschamps need him to be the Griezmann of old and the Griezmann of now, performing the duties of a number-eight, and a number ten. A number 18, if you’d like.
The greatest part is that he hasn’t lost his youthful demeanour football fans know and love, just papered over it with a steely exoskeleton because it benefits the team.
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