Lemar, the lighthouse of Simeone

Thomas Lemar does not intend to lose the place in the eleven that he has had so hard to achieve. The Frenchman has taken a step forward this season, until causing Simeone to change his training to find a place for him to enhance his characteristics, And despite contracting the coronavirus, he has returned after overcoming the disease with that march that makes him a completely unbalancing player.

All of it With the European Championship on the horizon and two games away from becoming a centenary as rojiblanco, something that could happen in the derby against Real Madrid. Although his return has coincided with two consecutive defeats, Lemar's presence greatly empowers Atlético, who had mourned his loss against Celta, Granada and in the Levante field. Something unsuspected at the beginning of the course, when after spending a season with zero goals and assists It foreshadowed a year with little participation for the French, who had had the poster of transferable in summer. But so far this year He has already played more (1,161 minutes) than in all of last season (1,147).

But he has managed to turn the situation completely around. “It took me a long time to adapt to Atlético's system and style of play. Now that I understand and understand everything better, things are much better. I feel like I have this DNA in me. I have in me that of fighting for all the balls that I always want to win, that I am always in pressure, that I am always in duels, that I always play forward. I have talked a lot with the coach. He asked me what we could do to improve my situation. He listened to me, I listened to him, I always told him that he was an axis player, inside”, Lemar explained recently in France Football.

And it is that its great leap in quality seems to be due more to the psychological field than football. Nobody doubted that he had quality, but he needed to be able to capture it on the pitch and make it clear that the confidence that Simeone offered him was no coincidence. And this course is achieving it, Although, as against Chelsea, he has to contribute in a position of sacrifice and collective commitment, playing as the left wing in defense.

If as a playmaker he has achieved his best version at Atlético, with freedom of movement to appear more regularly in the game thanks to his ability to drive and his vision of the game, Against the English he played a game suffered tactically, but at a high level despite not achieving the expected result. Lemar was a constant help for Hermoso behind him and whenever he could pass the center of the field put speed and spice to the little daring rojiblanco attack. He was close to opening the scoring after a center by Luis Suárez who did not finish off comfortably and did not hesitate to offer himself to give the team a start, which was very locked in its area and it cost a world to stretch.

Against Levante it was already the best solution to give Atlético another rhythm, which despite being defeated left a second half with constant arrivals and appearances near Cárdenas' goal. Lemar himself was about to put the tie in the 90th minute, with a great left foot from outside the area Suárez's center in a very complicated technical action that did not turn into a goal due to the great intervention of the Granota goalkeeper. It would have been his third goal of the course after scoring Valladolid and Cardassar in the Cup.

Despite the fact that Atlético's latest defeats seem plagued with bad news, with a bad moment for the team that is taking its toll, the great return of Lemar is one of those ropes to hold on to to get out of difficulties. The Frenchman feels more and more important, full of confidence in his game and willing to be one of the determining factors to see Atlético again, who dominated the matches and crushed them with force less than a month ago.