The last time he Atlético de Madrid received the Barcelona,Marcos Llorente saw the match on the bench. So, he was a footballer who was in the background in the mattress team. Diego Simeone he preferred other players. But from the inside, he was already thinking about his conversion.
Almost a year later (the crash was on December 1, 2019) the situation has changed a lot. And for the better, both for the Madrilenian and for Atlético. Now, Llorente has a leading role in the rojiblanco team. It is basic for Simeone. And although he is not an indisputable starter, he is one of the most used by Cholo, that if nothing changes, he will have him in the eleven against Barcelona.
A full-blown threat to Koeman and his pupils that of this midfielder converted to a winger and even a center forward, with a surprising ability to find his life and resolve situations to bring danger to the opposite goal. Even the fans prefer him as a replacement for Luis Suárez in attack.
Everything changed one night in March at Anfield. He took the field when things were worse for Atlético, and scored two goals and gave an assist to Morata so that the colchoneros would finish off Liverpool, the current continental champion and, at that time, the most fit team in the world.
“Simeone had warned me a few weeks before that there was a possibility that I could play a little later and told me to get ready,” he said. Llorente in a La Liga conference call on Thursday, reported by Reuters. “The moment finally came and things went quite well in the game and I have made a lot of progress since then.”
THE NIGHT OF JEDDAH
That was his high point, but before, and precisely against Barcelona, Llorente already showed that he could do damage in the rival area. It was in January, in the Spanish Super Cup played in Saudi Arabia. The semifinal produced a clash against the team then led by Valverde and entered by Koke, who reappeared that day and after being only 20 minutes on the field (he had time to score) he relapsed from his injury. That was also the time that Llorente played.
His entry coincided with an Atlético who went for Barcelona without complexes and ended up turning the scoreboard in the final stretch of the clash, with belt Y Morata as scorers, but with Llorente as the lung of the team. The triumph caused the dismissal of Ernesto Valverde of the azulgrana box, which at that time was leader of LaLiga.
In the League, as we say, Llorente did not have minutes against Barça at the Metropolitano, but he did at the Camp Nou in the second round, where he started. He has played two games against the Barça team as a mattress, with a victory and a draw. He needs to make his home debut against them, but he wants to keep the streak going.