Griezmann AWOL in Pamplona
Another poor performance from the French striker away from Camp Nou with Ter Stegen on the ball more often than the forward.
A week ago, Antoine Griezmann delivered an admirable performance as Barça overcame Real Betis on their 19-20 Camp Nou debut. As as active as the French player was in Barcelona, yesterday the striker was equally anonymous in Pamplona and this coupled with his season opener in San Mamés will be a cause of concern for Culés hoping for a quick return from their €120 million man.
A statistic which epitomises the discreet evening for the former Atleti man is that Barçá keeper Ter Stegen was on the ball more often than Griezmann during the 90 minutes of action at El Sadar and the data compared to that of his Camp Nou debut are dramatic.
In the first 15 minutes of the game against Betis, Griezmann touched the ball 23 times. Yesterday in Pamplona, the French forward was on the ball 22 times for the whole match.
16-year-old substitute Ansu Fati played for less than 45 minutes and was on the ball 23 times and bagged the second goal of the evening for the Catalan side.
LaLiga takes second stage as the players depart for international duty and it's anticipated that on its return Barcelona will have a front line of both Suarez and Messi to accompany Griezmann with the Camp Nou faithful hoping that against Valencia on September 14, the illustrious front line prompts the Frenchman to deliver the promise that his price tag demands.