‘Technically gifted’ – Julien Laurens explains why ‘underestimated’ Antoine Griezmann is key for Atletico Madrid

Antoine Griezmann’s versatility, defensive work-rate and technical ability makes him a special player, despite being chronically underestimated, according to TNT Sports expert Julien Laurens.

World Cup winner Griezmann is into his eighth season with Atleti and has helped the team win the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, Supercopa de Espana and reach the UEFA Champions League final in 2016.

However despite that, and his starring role for France as they made another World Cup final in 2022, Laurens still believes people don’t appreciate how special Griezmann is.

“He’s such an unselfish player, and he works so hard for the team. I mean, the tackle against Inter Milan in the second leg on the edge of his own box, where he dives in like a defender almost and blocks the shot, is outrageous for such an attacking player.

“People also forget what an incredibly technically gifted player he is and what incredible vision he has, in terms of creativity – and his left foot is just so pure and so perfect.”

Laurens went on to point out that not only does Griezmann have the defensive work-rate in his locker, he is also capable of adapting in a lot of different ways in terms of where he plays on the pitch.

“He’s capable of playing almost in every position on the pitch, apart from the defensive positions.

“For example, you can play him as a six, similar to what Pep Guardiola has done with Bernardo Silva, you can play him as a second striker like he’s playing mostly now for Atletico, you can play him as a lone striker if you want to play with a false nine, or even within the midfield three.

“And I just think that when you’ve got so much versatility on top of your football IQ, which is clearly really high, and that sweet left foot that you have, he is great.

“All his career really, he’s been a bit underestimated everywhere he’s played.”

Laurens was then asked why he thinks that might be the case, and whilst he admitted that he wasn’t sure, he did point out another factor to explain Griezmann’s talents.

“When you take a team like France, who are maybe the best in the world in international football for the last 10 years – they’ve reached three of the last four big finals – and then Atletico Madrid are the third biggest club in Spain and one of the best in Europe consistently in the Champions League etc, etc.

“So then I think one way of judging a player is, take him out of his team – so national team and club team – and then how do those teams do? With top, top players, you can see the difference because they are usually irreplaceable.

“With Griezmann, we saw it the other day with France, against Germany [during the March international break] when they were completely lost without him.

“We’ve seen it with Atletico Madrid. This season, when he had an injury in between the two Inter Milan games, they lost to Cadiz, who hadn’t won a game since September.

“They were terrible without him and I think this is also how you measure maybe the importance and the quality of the talent of a player – taking you out of a team. What is the team doing without you?

“Oh, they lost? I take you out of your national team, what do they do? Okay, they lost. So you must be pretty good, because without just one player and specifically without you, then they are almost a shambles in a way.

“Because him missing from the game just completely disorganised the French team and we lost creativity, work-rate, everything that we’ve described earlier on Griezmann that wasn’t there.

“There’s just nobody that can replace him, just like I was saying with Atletico, so this is how you can see how good he is because when he’s not there, his teams are suffering.”

Laurens also pointed out that despite the special relationship between Griezmann and Atletico manager Diego Simeone, other more attacking managers would have loved him too.

He also implores fans who watch European football to watch and appreciate him while he is still here before he makes his seemingly inevitable move to MLS.

“He’s a Bernardo Silva type, Pep would love a player like him, [Roberto] De Zerbi, [Jurgen] Klopp, all those guys would love him. I know he and Simeone have a special relationship and he [Simeone] is like another dad to him, but all those guys would love to have a player like him.

“And to be fair, I think the other shame about underestimating him in a way and under-appreciating him is that there are not many players like him, and there won’t be many more coming up.

“So we have two more years of him probably in Europe to enjoy, maybe 18 months, but once he’s gone, there won’t be many flair players like him with all the array of qualities to be able to play in different positions with that kind of elite work rate.”