He Atlético de Madrid will visit the Camp Nou
with the absence of
Kok
e, its captain. A player who is being key to the recovery of the team this season and who has become indispensable for the Cholo Simeone shortly after landing on the mattress bench.
And is that the numbers of the rojiblanco team in this 2020 without the captain on the field have been disastrous. Three defeats (Eibar and Real Madrid in the League and Cultural in the Cup) and two draws (Real Madrid in the Super Cup final and Leganés at home in the League). The worst streak of Atlético de Madrid throughout the campaign.
On the other hand with Koke in the field the mattresses still do not know the defeat. Since he returned they have added nine wins and four draws. Some of them very important and significant like the two he achieved against Liverpool, 1-0 in the Metropolitan and 2-3 in Anfield, without forgetting the 3-1 at home against Villarreal or the 0-5 against Osasuna. Going through 1-0 against him Granada, Valladolid, Levante or the last game 2-1 against him Alavés.
Koke will not be at the Camp Nou
One of them was before his next rival, the FC Barcelona. The colchoneros beat the Barça 2-3 in Ernesto Valverde's last game on the bench. That day he came out in the second half and when he had not been in the field for a minute he made it 0-1 on the scoreboard after belt. A match in which he lasted 21 minutes on the pitch, the time it took him to resent his injury. Despite all the mattresses ended up winning a game that was 1-2.
In addition to his goals, the Atlético de Madrid he will miss his assists. In this course he is the maximum assistant with six goal passes tied with belt. Trippier closely follows with five. We will see who is in charge of replacing him in this work.
Now the challenge of Cholo is to win your first match in the Camp Nou without its captain. A setback that according to confessed Simeone
At a press conference I had already planned. “Savic and Koke they weren't going to play anyway. To continue with the team that has given us a lot of strength ”. We will see if the Argentine coach decides to reserve many players for the match against him. B
arcelona.
A special field
We must not forget that for Koke Barça matches are always special because there he made his debut for Atlético de Madrid in 2009. More specifically, on September 19 under the leadership of Abel Resino. That day they lost 5-2 although it was a special day for the mattress squad. That day he took a very special memory, Mundo Deportivo published a photo in which he appeared fighting a ball with Andrés Iniesta, one of his soccer referents along with Xavi Hernández. “It seems that they have put me there with photoshop” recognized this newspaper in its day. More than ten years later it has become the banner of the mattress club.