There is no quiet week at Atlético. If after the game against Celta the feeling grew of having finally recovered the solvency and security of the team at the back, by managing to close the second consecutive game in the League without conceding and receiving a goal in three games where the team had returned to being a block, injuries are raging again in the rear and leave the impression that this course is very complicated to have continuity.
Savic, who saw his fifth yellow card in the league, The duel against Celta ended with some muscular discomfort where the best news is that no muscle rupture has been detected, but will have to stop when there was found with Giménez and Reinildo a strong and forceful center of defense. A rearguard used successfully by Simeone against Osasuna, Manchester United and Celta. But also, Hermoso has also dropped out when in his case he had not even participated in the last two games and he had only played eight minutes in Pamplona during the intense last week.
Therefore, Atlético will visit Benito Villamarín in a key duel for the Champions League with Giménez and Felipe as the only pure central defenders available. An evil that has been repeating itself and that has forced various improvisations and reconversions. If the arrival of Reinildo and his good adaptation to the line of three central defenders outlined on the left has been a balm for Simeone, the coach has barely been able to line up Savic and Giménez together, his two main strongholds. Between injuries and sanctions, the Montenegrin will miss his fifteenth game against Betis this season, to which we must add two more duels that he saw complete from the bench recently overcome an injury. The evolution of his ailments will mark even when he is out and if he arrives at Old Trafford in good condition.
Gimenez for his part He has been absent eight games due to physical problems between injuries and coronavirus and has seen another four complete games from the bench. Some physical problems that have forced Simeone to turn to Hermoso and Felipe and convert soccer players like Kondogbia or Vrsaljko to emergency centers. The Central African is another of the players who has filled out the casualty list this week, in an infirmary where they are also Koke, Cunha and Wass. In the case of the Danish, incorporated in January as a solution to the right back and who could only play 45 minutes against Barcelona before being injured.
Facing Betis, Simeone plans to align Felipe covering Savic’s absence and will have to resort to the quarry to complete the list of available centrals. The Brazilian began the season injured in his knee after the Copa América, but he has dodged physical problems well ever since. However, Felipe has not been able to perform when he has had to play, and his poor performances have been rounded off on two occasions with the direct reds that complicated the team at Anfield and against Getafe and then he has had a total of three games out due to suspension. What’s more, If he saw a yellow card against Betis, he could not be against Cádiz due to the accumulation of warnings.
And in the case of Hermoso, the adductor injury joins the recent case of coronavirus that separated him from the duel against Levante. The man from Madrid has not been at the level of last season either and the arrival of Reinildo has been subtracting minutes until he was relegated to the background. But, without Savic, his presence seemed important in the new wave of games that Atlético faces. Some constant injuries that are damaging the team a lotand more so in a center of defense that has suffered like never before and that will once again have to face casualties in the fight to achieve a regularity that, until now, is slipping away.