Atlético welcomes Marcos Llorente's great moment. The midfielder carries practically a full year at a very high level and he has become a reference in the rojiblanco team. Against Levante he saw goal again in the ninth goal of the season, eight of them in the league, which together with his eight assists make him a total player.
Llorente received outside the area after a corner taken short and looked for the far shot that, after touching Rober Pier, it became the goal of the tie for the rojiblancos. A few minutes later, he again tested the barrel on his right leg with a shot to place that ended up taking Aitor Fernández with difficulties. Llorente was being a torment for the rear of Levante, without stopping to appear and generate danger, but the red-and-white weakness in the right lane without Trippier leads him to be Simeone's patch when he wants to find an alternative to Vrsaljko, which causes the '14' to lose a lot of action radius.
In the second half he tried to bite down the side as a lane, but he ended up broken from both raising and lowering the band. His versatility is a blessing, but it also means that he has to play where he least enjoys when the team needs it. And is that Llorente is already the LaLiga half with the most goals scored, in addition to being the leader in assists of the entire competition (yesterday he equaled De Frutos with his goal pass to Bardhi). With his eight goals he beat Canales and only eleven forwards surpass him in so many, rubbing shoulders with specialists in that facet like Aspas, Isak or Roger (all three with 9).
In the major European leagues, very few midfielders can overshadow Marcos Llorente's numbers. Only Bruno Fernandes, who has 14 goals and 10 assists for Manchester United, Mkhitaryan, with nine goals and another nine passes for Roma and Jack Grealish, With six goals and 12 assists, they have participated in more goals directly than he. Gündogan and João Pedro they have scored more, both with 11 goals, but they only add two assists.
Simeone count the dates to get Trippier back and not have to keep making patches in the right lane, because losing Llorente in attack is a huge handicap considering his level. The Madrilenian adds this season 2,111 minutes when in the entire past course he played 1,718. He can already boast of being the highest scoring midfielder in LaLiga, the best assistant and a footballer whose growth in the last year has been unstoppable. When Llorente is free in attack, he appears with constancy and runs wild with his power in the race and ability to uncheck, there is no player who can compare with him, with his ability to hurt the rival goal and his timing of form.