Atlético's right-back will start to have a first-rate competition from Salzburg. Not because Trippier is performing poorly, it is more, he is probably at his best as an rojiblanco installed to perfection in this new defense with three center-backs and his position as a winger coming much more into play in the rival field. With Savic covering his back, the Englishman is leaving a fantastic performance much more liberated and with Llorente as a great ally.
But the rojiblanco team worries about the amount of minutes he is having to assume. Trippier has played it all Atlético's ten complete games in the League and the five in the Champions League. A total of 1,350 minutes without pause in this suffocating calendar where the colchoneros compete every three days. He is, along with Oblak, the only footballer without any rest and by uniting his commitments with his national team he is submitting to a significant overexertion.
Now there are two key games for the club's aspirations, in the Champions League against Salzburg with the great objective of overcoming the group stage and in the league in the derby against Real Madrid. Later comes the Cup, where that first break could come for Trippier. For this there is a week where Vrsaljko can pick up the pace once he has recovered from all the problems that he has been dragging on his knee since the stoppage due to the coronavirus health crisis and that he has off the pitch since March 11 in the historic victory at Anfield against Liverpool.
The Croatian entered the squad for the match against the Austrian team nine months after the last time. In between, he underwent a arthroscopy in the knee to remove surgical supplies of the previous intervention and in October to a surgical intervention consisting of a Arthroscopic resection of scar plica in the left knee. He also had the setback of contracting the coronavirus before the Champions League match against Leipzig. A year to forget, but Vrsaljko returns to the top to try to compete with the English for the position. The great beneficiary will be a Simeone who will finally see the position that has been most limited bent and for which it has achieved the ideal scenario in which it has been possible to see the Trippier more comfortable and better exploiting its characteristics in the lane.