France coach Didier Deschamps is trying to rebuild the confidence of Barcelona attacker Antoine Griezmann.
Ronald Koeman is lining up the 29-year-old as a right winger, but former French midfielder Alain Giresse believes that Deschamps is attempting to play Griezmann as a No.10 in order to give him a much-needed confidence boost.
“The problem is [that] Griezmann has lost his confidence and Didier is playing him to try and bring it back,” Giresse told L’Equipe after France’s 0-0 draw against Portugal.
“He played like a No.10, but Griezmann is not a No.10. We have always said that if there is a player who the play should revolve around, it should be [Olivier] Giroud. At the World Cup, it was like that with [Kylian] Mbappe on one side and [Blaise] Matuidi on the other.
“Well, we talked about a 4-4-2 and a diamond system in the middle and we know very well that we need things to complement each other when we try to play this way.
“However, for two matches, Didier Deschamps places Griezmann behind the two in front of Giroud and Mbappe. But against Portugal, Griezmann behaved more like a kind of false off-centre attacker; he was no longer in support of Giroud.
“Because Mbappe, he is not the type of player who will move around the striker. He needs space.”
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