- Barcelona are reportedly reserving the No.7 shirt for Griezmann
- Don Balón claim that the Catalan giants could use a very ambitious attacking system
- Perhaps acceptable against inferior sides, but huge risk if used against top teams
- READ MORE: Barcelona will prioritise two summer targets including €100m star says Spanish football expert
Barcelona reportedly have a very ambitious plan to fit all of their attacking stars into one line-up, but there are obvious problems with it.
As per Don Balón, as re-reported by The Express, the Catalan giants hope to complete the signing of Antoine Griezmann this summer from Atletico Madrid, and will leave the No.7 shirt vacated for him.
In the event that the Frenchman arrives, that would leave Ernesto Valverde with Griezmann, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho at his disposal.
While that looks incredible on paper and would give him multiple options to ensure Barcelona are able to compete on various fronts with squad rotation not a problem, Don Balon have taken it a step further and in all honesty, have completely lost us.
It’s suggested that Coutinho will play out on the left with Dembele on the opposite flank. Suarez would be deployed at the head of the attack with Messi and Griezmann behind him through the middle, with the latter taking on more defensive responsibility.
On one hand, an argument could be made to suggest that Barcelona could get away with such a system against lower league sides where they expect to dominate possession and create plenty of chances.
That is a lot of attacking quality for any team to handle, and the report notes that Valverde will have to adapt his system to the opposition, which is a fair point.
Against the top sides, the system detailed above would surely be a huge and frankly incomprehensible risk from Valverde, as there is an horrific lack of balance in that side with Sergio Busquets tasked with providing defensive coverage alone in midfield in front of a back four which will surely leave them badly exposed to the counter-attack even against ‘inferior’ opposition.
In reality, Barcelona will have to rotate if they are intent on signing Griezmann this summer as the above report would suggest, unless someone is sold. Even if that is the case, Valverde will have a huge challenge on his hands to keep everyone in the dressing room happy and motivated as he’ll be blessed with a lot of attacking talent.