The claim a year and a half ago would have been far-fetched. Recover the best Lemar. Those photos, at Atlético, were full of dust, so far away. Lemar in Tallinn, in the 2018 European Cup Super Cup against Real Madrid. A Lemar who had just landed at Atlético and who was all exclamations, for his breaks, his vertical football, his threat. It went out so soon how did they start weigh on his shoulders the 70 million that Atlético had paid to Monaco for his signing, the most expensive then in the club’s history (‘title’ that he would snatch a summer later John Felix, for the 120 million that Atlético cost his purchase of Benfica). Two summers ago, in 2020, its name was on the market, its price plunged into a chasm. He stayed at Atlético. Simeone had never stopped trusting him. The coach knew of his performance in training, where there was no audience that made the shirt weigh tons on his shoulders, that entangled his steps, that turned all his plays into a labyrinth without exit.
It was precisely the lack of public in the stadiums, perhaps, due to the COVID pandemic, which, suddenly, turned the Lemar of the parties into that Lemar that Cholo knew of training. The footballer that Atlético had signed from Monaco returned, a differential player. LaLiga rojiblanca from last season is also tied to his name, like those of Luis Suárez, Correa and Llorente. Thomas Lemar. He began to haggle, to overflow, to uncheck with determination and flight. He began to excel in all fields and games, to be the glue that Cholo needed between his lines, his talent began to overflow.
The lack of continuity in the League
This season, with the public returning to the Wanda Metropolitano, nothing changed. Lemar was the Lázaro del Cholo, the player of the ‘get up and walk’, waking up ‘oooh’ of admiration in each of his steps. He no longer weighs the price, nor the shirt, he no longer weighs that and, nevertheless, Atlético does not have the flight of last season, fourth in the League, without walking with a firm step, or that of a champion that was assumed to be a squad that was already more so De Paul and Griezmann, neither at home nor abroad. One of the reasons may be in the French small: the lesions are filling your feet with strains. They are not giving continuity. And, without Lemar, Atleti flies less. In the League he has not been able to link five games in a row. He was injured, muscular, against Porto, in the first game of the group stage and, shortly after returning, against Barcelona, who had a break with João Félix, he fell again. He returned to Osasuna, in the derby, last weekend, he played half of it and shone again. Atlético is playing part of its real aspirations in LaLiga this weekend in Seville, in the Pizjuán, it needs the best Lemar. Let the injuries be left behind. Let him just fly between the lines and look with sharp fangs at goal. And the team next to him.