It’s time to talk about the evident improvement from Antoine Griezmann this season, it has been slow but quite steady under Ronaldo Koeman.
Antoine Griezmann arrived as the possible alternative to Neymar once the club realized that Coutinho and Dembele weren’t going to work. When the Catalan club chose between both players, they believed that Griezmann was the ideal choice. At first, it took him a while getting used to the team’s dynamic. At times it even seemed like he was trying too hard to fit in, but he never gave up on his dream to succeed at the club.
Playing alongside Leo Messi was always a dream he had and he worked hard for it. Today, the numbers tell a story of a player who overcame adversities and managed to improve from his first season. Although Griezmann is still far from the player he was during the Atletico Madrid era, he is slowly getting there under Ronald Koeman. The Dutch manager granted him the confidence he needed in order to trust his qualities again. But where exactly was the moment where Antoine changed his fortune?
That interview changed everything.
It happened during that famous Universo Valdano interview. Antoine was suffering from criticism by every single journalist in Spain, he wanted to reverse that situation. The many off-the-pitch issues he had were a real problem and he needed to stop them. Once he managed to get everything out of his chest, he finally got the critics to back off for a bit. With that room to breathe, Griezmann could finally focus on his game and he started delivering results.
In terms of numbers it’s pretty clear. The French forward scored a total of 15 goals in 48 matches during his first season at FC Barcelona. This year is very different with 14 goals scored already in 40 matches and 11 games still to go. Plus, he has seven more assists today than he had in his entire first season at the club. The improvement and results are evident for Griezmann. Hopefully, he can also win some titles to top it off.
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