The football world has been dominated so much by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in recent years. We have hardly seen players who can challenge the duopoly of the two greats of modern football. Antoine Griezmann is definitely one of those players who come close when it comes to keep amazing the worldwide his football skills on a weekly basis.
Griezmann is a key player at Vicente Calderon and signed a new deal recently to commit his future to the club with a whopping release clause of £85m. But he is such a brilliant player that even a new deal has failed to ward off his lengthy list of suitors. The Mirror claims that both Chelsea and Manchester United are interested in the signing of the 25-year-old French maestro.
Considering that Chelsea are interested in the signing the French superstar, let us have a look at how will he fit into Conte’s setup.
Of course, Griezmann is a player for whom any manager in the world would change his tactics but Chelsea do not actually need to. The 25-year-old looks tailor-made for the system Conte has deployed at Chelsea of late.
Griezmann is capable of occupying several attacking positions thanks to his amazing versatility and technical skills. At Real Sociedad, he was mostly used as a winger on either flank but at Atletico Madrid, he has mostly played as a supporting striker behind a natural number nine or even as a number nine.
Simeone also has used Griezmann as a right wide forward often and he has hardly failed to deliver.
The current front-three at Chelsea are Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Pedro Rodriguez. You do not need to be a football expert to point out who is weak link out there. It is Pedro without any shadow of doubt. The former Barcelona star has never performed at Chelsea on a consistent basis. Even though he is doing pretty well of late, Griezmann will easily replace the Spaniard in the right wide forward role.
In the roles Conte has been using Hazard and Pedro right now, is technically not a winger’s role. It is the wingbacks Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso who provide the width at Chelsea, not Hazard and Pedro.
Hazard and Pedro’s job is much easier in the system Conte is using. All they need to do is to drift inside and create opportunities for themselves as well as their teammates with the wingbacks stretching play. That is why Hazard is doing such an excellent job this season with the defensive workload off his shoulder.
Griezmann is a complete attacking player who can do everything a forward aspires of. He can score with either foot. He can create for his teammates. A brilliant penalty taker and a dead-ball threat, Griezmann works very hard for the side.
With an attack comprising of Costa, Hazard and Greizmann, Chelsea could potentially be a threat in Europe as well.
