João Félix looks like another this season. The Portuguese, 20, he was hired last year from Benfica for 127 million euros as the player who should give Atlético a leap in quality after Griezmann's departure. However, left more shadows than lights in his first year as rojiblanco (nine goals and three assists in 36 games). He showed that he has a quality at the level of the greats of world football, but something very important was missing in order to be among the best: regularity.
There were surely several factors that influenced his intermittent performance: his youth, the fact of coming from a league that is the second European echelon and arriving at a club like Atlético, with a very special work philosophy. Also the injuries punished him, since accumulated three periods of absence during the campaign that made him miss a total of 13 matches. All this prevented him from having continuity and made it difficult for him to adapt to LaLiga. However, both the managers and the coaching staff had blind faith in him and they did not want to hear the siren songs that came once from England.
They were confident that, after a first year in which he needed to become the club and the competition, João would be seen who made them become the most expensive signing in the club's history. And the Portuguese has proved them right. In just two games (against Granda and Huesca) the player has shown that he can carry the weight of Atlético's game without any problem. In the debut of Simeone's men in the league competition, against the Nasrids, left a goal and an assist in the mattress win (6-1). But beyond that, it proved that by playing between the lines can be a determining player for the successes of the rojiblanco team.
In Atlético's visit to Huesca yesterday he had a gray first half, since it was difficult for him to connect with the game. However, in the second half the entire team stepped forward to look for Andrés Fernández's goal (In the first half they only finished twice). That benefited him, since was able to get more in contact with the ball and create dangerous occasions, both his own and his teammates with his collaboration. His was the pass that left Luis Suárez alone in front of the Huesca goalkeeper, but this marred the occasion. Although the rojiblancos could not score or, therefore, take the three points, their numbers clearly show that he was the best, not only of his team, but of the game. He was the one who finished the most (six times), the one who made the most good passes (47 out of 51; his record since he was at Atlético), the one who won the most duels (10 out of 16) and the one who completed the most dribbles (four out of six).