The Frenchman has initially had to play on the left and when Messi, Suárez and Dembélé were all available he was on the bench. He is too good not to integrate but it may take time

“That’s a good question,” Antoine Griezmann replied but he was not daft enough to actually answer it. With that line, he had said enough. On the eve of last week’s Champions League match against Internazionale, Griezmann was asked if he would play better on the right. The question was leading and what came next was even more telling than his response.

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The following night he was withdrawn after an hour. Four days later, he spent the Sevilla match on the bench. Barcelona had paid €120m for him but the first time all their senior forwards were available he was left out in favour of a front three made up of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé.

After the win over Villarreal last month, in which he scored the opener, Griezmann noted a little pointedly: “Three goals isn’t bad, is it?” It is not – at the time he was the club’s top scorer and a fortnight on only Suárez has more – and no one is suggesting he is bad either. But there is a predictable problem, a difficulty finding his place.

On his home debut, against Real Betis in August, Griezmann scored twice, celebrating by throwing blue and red confetti into the air. He had copied that from the basketball player LeBron James; he had copied the goal too, saying: “I see Messi doing it in training.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lionel Messi was forced to deny this week that he had not wanted Griezmann to sign for Barcelona. Photograph: Alejandro García/EPA

It felt as if there was something in the remark that spoke of hierarchies and a desire to ingratiate himself. He had known his arrival was not universally popular after the way he had turned Barcelona down a summer before he actually signed, the decision played out in a TV documentary. “If I have to say sorry, I’ll do it on the pitch,” he had said but that has not been easy. Last week he admitted he and Messi are quiet, so “it’s not easy for us to talk”. And on Thursday Messi had to deny suggestions he had not wanted Griezmann to come at all.

But beyond all those other considerations, this comes down to something simple that is not so simple after all: football, where to fit the Frenchman in. At the same time as he said it was a “lie” to suggest he had not wanted Griezmann, Messi admitted that, yes, he had wanted Barcelona to sign Neymar and thus revive that famous “trident”. In it, Neymar’s role is to play where the Frenchman is currently playing – or, more accurately, where he is having to play. As for the other two members of that front three, they play where Griezmann would best play.

At Real Sociedad, Griezmann played on the left of a front three, but that was five years ago. His emergence as one of the world’s best players at Atlético Madrid came with him in one of two positions, or sometimes both at the same time: off the right or off the front, through the middle. In other words, Messi’s or Suárez’s position. It is one thing to copy Messi when he is not there; another to do it when he is. When the rest returned he was pushed to the left wing, the place he had left behind, away from his natural spheres of influence.

“I’ve just arrived, it’s a different position, I have to change my movements, improve,” Griezmann admitted. “I need to get into the game more, improve my play on the wing. My teammates want the best from me and so do I.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Griezmann celebrates with confetti after scoring on his home debut against Real Betis. Photograph: Eric Alonso/ZUMA Press/Alamy

He is an intelligent striker with an enormous capacity for work, prepared to sacrifice himself for others. It is early and he probably can relearn a left-sided role. He is too good to give up on, not to integrate, not to seek a solution, but it may take time and imagination. Maybe an entire new formation, which risks making matters worse. It may take difficult decisions too. If he does not get left out, who does? It is not going to be Messi, so Suárez?

There are also alternatives to him and if there is one thing worse than playing out of position it is not playing at all. In his absence, it worked. When he was replaced by Dembélé, it was far from perfect but the fit was that little bit more natural. The good news for Griezmann is that Dembélé was sent off at the end of the Sevilla game for calling the referee “very bad”, and he will be suspended for two games – including the clásico. There is no better match in which to make a point. But can he from out there on the wing? If Ansu Fati is fit, it is not unthinkable that he still does not start then, either.

“Where do you think Griezmann plays best?” Ernesto Valverde was asked before the Inter game. “In the forward line,” he shot back swiftly, tongue slightly in his cheek, knowing where this was going. “I think he looks good on the left; he can play there. I don’t think it’s a bad idea for him to play on the left or in the middle,” the Barcelona manager continued, before adding a little sarcastically, “but, yeah, I’ll have a think about him on the right.”

There is a question there and, as Griezmann said, it is a good one.