Being a substitute for Jan Oblak is a matter of faith. Always be prepared, but be aware that, if there is no strange mishap, the options to participate will be minimal. It is what has lived this course a Benjamin Lecomte whose loan from Monaco comes to an end after the match against Real Sociedad and, apparently, the Frenchman will say goodbye without having made his debut with the red and white shirt.
And that Oblak has lived a complicated season. Like Atletico. The goalkeeper has been a faithful representative of the difficult year for the rojiblancos. Nobody better, since the Slovenian has been on the pitch for the team’s 4,500 minutes this season. All 50 games. Neither injuries, expulsions, constipation or tournament changes have taken him out of eleven. Other years the Copa del Rey was the opportunity for the substitute goalkeeper (Grbic, Adán, Moyá…), but not even for these did Simeone want to trust. However, Oblak could do nothing to prevent the team from being knocked out in the round of 16. It was during the visit to the Royal Society, last place of the season also to close LaLiga.
At stake is third place and seven million difference with being fourth. Although, weeks ago, he feared something worse. Go to San Sebastián to play a Champions League that was assured with the victory in Elche. Oblak’s season has gone from less to more, after an uncertain, surprising and inexplicable start. The defensive insecurity, with Savic and Giménez constantly visiting the infirmary, was transferred to the goalkeeper, who saw how one out of every two shots turned into a goal. With the return of his two central defenders and the winter signing of Reinildo, the errors have been disappearing and Oblak has managed to improve his records and return to a much more recognizable last few weeks, with seven goals conceded in the last 12 games.
against Seville, Oblak reached 50 games played in the same season, something he had only done in 2015-16 when Atlético reached the Champions League final. On that occasion finished with 51a figure that can be matched at the Reale Arena. Zamora from LaLiga in five of the last six campaignsequaling Valdés and Ramallets at the top of the torch, it soon became clear that Oblak this year could not fight for the individual trophy to stand alone at the top. The 56 goals conceded are his worst figure as a rojiblanco (previously it had never even reached 40), but it is time to recover sensations.
With a contract until June 2023, Atlético’s great objective is to renew its goalkeeper and second captain. Oblak is two games away from equaling Juanfran and Miguel Angel Ruiz as the fifteenth footballer with the most games in the club’s history (the goalkeeper has 353). He is the second foreigner who has worn the rojiblanca the most times after Godín (389) and an entire institution in the locker room. At 29, Oblak has many challenges ahead of him at Atlético as he ends one of the most difficult seasons since he arrived at the club in the summer of 2014. In the first he had to take over the title after starting as a substitute for Moyá and in 2016-17 a shoulder injury kept him unemployed for a good period of time. Now it has been an insecurity never seen before that has been corrected with the games. Oblak and Atlético, a strange season of 51 games that has gone hand in hand.