Barcelona 1-0 Real Sociedad: 5 Talking Points as Blaugrana register important victory | LaLiga 2019-20 

2. Another quiet game for Antoine Griezmann

Griezmann did not make a mark on the game

Barcelona spent a lot of time, effort, and money trying to land Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid and even had to suffer the public ignominy of being turned down by the Frenchman in favour of extending his contract on live TV in 2018.

This should have been enough to end their interest but the Blaugrana were seemingly desperate to get him and paid the full value of his release clause last summer.

So far, the 28-year-old has failed to hit the heights reached under Diego Simeone and while he might have shown flashes of his undoubted potential, they have come in fits and starts and he has lacked the consistency to make a genuine mark at the club.

His record of eight goals and four assists from 25 LaLiga games is not exactly poor by any stretch of the imagination but it is also far from the numbers expected of a talented player like him.

The French international has scored just one goal in the league since the start of 2020 and that has been his only goal contribution in the last eight matches which is especially poor, considering that Luis Suarez has been out for two months with injury.

The game against his former side offered him a chance to redeem himself but Griezmann once again stuttered and failed to make a mark on the clash, with the dejected look on his face as he trudged off for Ansu Fati indicative of his awareness of another lackluster display.