11Hacks Data Analysis: Is Griezmann the key to France's gameplan against Poland?
His activity in the opposition's final third is not too far behind his two aforementioned teammates. He takes an average of two shots per game, has already recorded 10 passes leading directly to shots.
He is one of the best players in the tournament in terms of expected goals and assists.
So far in this World Cup, Griezmann has attracted attention because of his creativity. He creates scoring opportunities not only from open play, but also from set plays, which gives him an 80% chance of scoring an assist in a match according to the expected assists (xA) metric.
His technical skills also translate into an advanced mathematical model that evaluates a player's attacking contribution based on all the touches he makes on the pitch. That means passes, runs and dribbles. In this model, Griezmann is the best attacking player in the tournament so far.
No other player has had such a great contribution to his team offensively - not even Lionel Messi (35).
Griezmann is being pursued by a group of players that includes Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele (25), the now injured Angel Di Maria (34) and Jamal Musiala (19), who can't improve his stats after Germany's elimination, along with the Argentine icon.
Griezmann almost added a goal to his tally against Tunisia in the final group game for France. He did put the ball in the net in stoppage time, but the goal was disallowed after a review, which controversially came after the final whistle, causing a wave of discontent in the French camp.
The French Football Federation even turned to the FIFA authorities with an official protest.
Griezmann not only creates, but is also tremendously valuable in defence. His strength in duels, active pressing and winning a lot of balls in all parts of the pitch is a key asset for France.
He makes an average of 3.12 active duels per game against the opposition, with a success rate of... 100%.
So far, if Griezmann has decided to get the ball away from the opponent, he has always succeeded. And despite the huge defensive activity, he hasn't committed one foul.
According to the prediction models, France, along with Argentina and Brazil, are the favourites to reach the quarter finals.
Poland made it to the knockout stage through a good deal of luck and did not impress in any of their group matches.
Against strong opponents, they played with defensive tactics and an essentially non-existent plan in the final third, relying mainly on the individual quality of Robert Lewandowski (34), which is not enough in such a competitive field.
This was clearly seen against Argentina. Poland had four shots on target in the match with an overall xG of 0.20 - two blocked and two off the post.
According to mathematical models, the Argentines should have scored three goals, a big part of that was Wojciech Szczesny's save from Messi's penalty.
The same models gave Poland a 1% chance of winning based on the run of play.
Therefore, we can expect French dominance, which should again be led by Griezmann, for many the surprising French leader in this year's championship.
