Why reinvented Griezmann is the real jewel in France's crown

Kylian Mbappe provides the magic, and Olivier Giroud the goals, but it is Antoine Griezmann who holds the key for Les Bleus, writes Matt Connellan.

Kylian Mbappe celebrates Olivier Giroud's goal with Antoine Griezmann and Theo Hernandez during France's victorious FIFA World Cup quarter-final over England. Credit: Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

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Griezmann’s assists for Aurelien Tchouameni and Giroud take his career international assist tally to 28, surpassing Thierry Henry as France’s leading supplier of goals.

But is the reinvention of Griezmann as a bona fide midfield player that has most caught the eye here in Qatar.

Griezmann made his name as an attacking player, either from the wing or just off the front line, but for France here he has played as a genuine number 8.

And while English eyes during the quarter-final were rightly trained on Mbappe, Giroud, and Ousmane Dembele, it was Griezmann who flitted between the lines, darting this way and that, threading passes between defence and attack and proving to be the quarter-final’s outstanding player.

Griezmann’s move to midfield was partly born out of necessity.

With Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Corentin Tolisso all missing, coach Didier Deschamps needed a novel solution.

In Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot, Deschamps had two players with energy and vigour, while the front trio of Mbappe, Giroud (and originally Karim Benzema) and Dembele carried more than enough goal threat.

But who would knit it all together?

For Deschamps, the answer was right in front of him.

Griezmann scored four goals as France won the last World Cup in Russia, but has taken to his new, deeper role like a duck to water.

Deschamps, to his credit, has always seen Griezmann’s potential as a midfield conductor, a metronomic tempo setter with a left foot to die for.

The 31-year-old’s touch, balance, vision, and poise have made this ominous-looking French outfit tick, and the way he moves the ball through midfield, all slide rule passes and precise geometry, is a joy.

Griezmann’s David Silva-like reinvention as a proper midfielder could well be one of Deschamps’s finest creations.

The coach has played the Atletico star in the past 72 matches straight for Les Bleus.

He’s France’s beating heart and if Les Bleus are holding aloft the World Cup trophy at the end of his 74^th straight match, it’ll be largely down to Griezmann.