¿ Koke, suplente?

If Monday’s test was striking, Koke in the team of substitute theorists in the game at San Mamés, this afternoon that feeling gains weight: the captain could start the game against Athletic from the bench. And it is that Koke was part of the group of rojiblancos soccer players that exercised today on the lawn of Cerro del Espino. And they were not all. they were just Lecomte, Wass, Vrsaljko, Felipe, Savic, De Paul, Cunha y Correabesides the captain. At six another group will work. Another group with Carrasco, with Llorente, with Lodi, with Herrera, with Kondogbia, with Griezmann and Suárez, those who point to titular theorists.

Atlético faces the remaining five League games as five finals. Five finals in which he has to close that objective that is primordial and on which the future of the club is based: finish in the top four, qualify for the next Champions League. If there is a footballer who is the projection of the Argentine on the pitch, that is Koke. Their stories at Atlético can only be read in parallel, in fact, Cholo was the one who stopped the youth squad’s march to Malaga, closed in December 2011. The rest is history. Koke is about to exceed Adelardo’s 553 games with the red and white, a record with more than 70 years. He adds 540. He is the footballer who accumulates the most minutes year after year (he is the player with the most minutes on the field this season, for example, 2,972′). trust is full.

This season, however, is being irregular, with ups and downs. The captain doesn’t finish mixing with De Paul when Herrera isn’t around. But it is Koke, the MVP of the second leg against Manchester United. In the 2021-22 season he has been a starter in 25 games of the 27 in which he has been available, only a substitute in one. San Mamés could be the second. Cholo has two training sessions left in the week to continue maturing him.