Koke responds in the field

Koke is not the player with the most games played for Simeone by chance. The mattress captain, who every week he is closer to reaching Adelardo as the footballer with the most games in red and white history (he is already in 535 games for the 553 of the extremeño), suffered a muscle injury after Atlético began to straighten the course in Pamplona, where he assisted Correa to close the scoring.

The Vallecano had not played a good first half of the season, very far from the great level shown last year leading the team from the pivot to the League title. And the team noticed it greatly. During his injury, Herrera took over the middle controls and Kondogbia was his best complement in the first leg against Manchester United and against Celta. And criticism from certain sectors focused on Koke as guilty of all the evils of the few points this campaign. However, Simeone knows how important his captain is to the team.

as soon as it was available He returned directly to eleven against Cádiz to pick up the pace for what was to come, a do-or-die game at Old Trafford. And in the Champions League the Koke of the great nights returned. Pure work, temper, strength, kilometers and calm with the ball, was key for the party to follow the paths that Cholo was looking for. Together with Herrera and a De Paul who grew enormously by centering his position with Griezmann on the right, Koke participated in João Félix’s disallowed goal for a very fair offside and left a great match against Manchester United until having to request the change at 80 minutes due to exhaustion after giving everything on the field. The captain ended up chosen by the Champions League as the best player of the match.

And in Vallecas, the neighborhood that saw him grow up, left another great performance before a break in which he will be with the National Team. Koke completed against Rayo 45 good passes, the most of the team (with an 81.8% success rate) and he recovered 12 balls, the most of the game together with Reinildo, Llorente and Trejo. But also the midfielder he scored the only goal of the derby for the fifth consecutive victory of the team that settles in the Champions positions. Koke fell to the left wing, combined inside with João Félix and took advantage of the Portuguese’s fantastic wall to make his first goal of the course crossing his shot with a lot of quality. Something that he celebrated by raising his hands to the name as a certain vindication and that makes him the fifth player in scoring during each and every one of the last 12 LaLiga seasons alongside Benzema, Raúl García, Muniain and Griezmannaccording to data from Opta.

With Koke fine-tuned, everything is easier at Atlético. The captain’s return has also coincided with De Paul’s growth in the last two games. The Argentine did a lot of things well against Rayo, taking over the match, very successful when it came to combining and overcoming rivals with driving and commanding in one of his best versions. The De Paul from Argentina and that he went to look for last summer. Able to leave Griezmann hand in hand or boost Llorente on the wing, everything seems more fluid in Atlético in recent games. And Herrera continues to add to the pivot, something that gives his teammates a lot of freedom of movement from the machine room and a controlled first pass from behind to come out playing. The three midfielders arrive at the break full of confidence after taking a step forward at the right time.