Barcelona's Antoine Griezmann Talks 'Lack of Confidence' in Decision-Making

Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann has revealed he is lacking confidence in his decision-making as he works to get up to speed with his new team-mates.

The Frenchman moved to Barca from Atletico Madrid in the summer.

Per AS' Juan Jimenez, Griezmann told UEFA.com:

"I'm in the process of learning and understanding how my team-mates play as everything is new to me.

"I'm still trying to read the runs and off-the-ball movement from the likes of Luis Suarez, [Lionel] Messi and Ousmane Dembele along with the midfielders.

"It's my intention to get to grips with this as soon as possible so I can offer my all to the team, but at times, it's tricky.

"At present, when I get the ball, I have a certain lack of confidence in when to pass or when to shoot on goal. This I'm sure is something that will change with the passing of time."

Griezmann added that he is shy, but he has had meals with Messi and Suarez, and he believes their "relationship can only improve over time."

He has just four goals and three assists to his name in 16 appearances for Barcelona. Two of the goals and one of the assists came in a 5-2 win over Real Betis in August, in which neither Messi nor Suarez played because of injury.

On Saturday, he was substituted by manager Ernesto Valverde in Barca's 2-1 win over Leganes before the hour-mark, when the score was still level.

Squawka's Muhammad Butt felt it would do his confidence little good:

Valverde started with all four of Griezmann, Messi, Suarez and Dembele, but the former had endured a quiet game, as AS' Robbie Dunne observed:

Griezmann has shown himself to be a decisive player throughout his career. He bagged 133 goals and 50 assists in 257 games for Atletico Madrid, while in 78 outings for France, he has netted 30 times and assisted 23.

He has been particularly creative for Les Bleus this year:

It is still relatively early in the 28-year-old's career at the Camp Nou, and it may not be easy to break into a forward line in which Messi and Suarez already have exceptional chemistry with one another.

Valverde's management may not have done him many favours, either.

Barcelona will want much more of a return on their €120 million investment, though, and the team need him to share the goalscoring and creative burden with Messi and Suarez.

Griezmann finds himself in a similar situation to Eden Hazard, who has scored just once for Real Madrid since his arrival from Chelsea in the summer.

Barca and Real are level on 28 points in La Liga after 13 matches. Which team manages to pull ahead in the title race could be down to which one of Griezmann or Hazard hits top form first.