The loss of Hermoso in the match against Elche, 2nd round of the League, at the premiere of the champion at the Wanda Metropolitano (19:30) poses a difficult dilemma for Cholo: What to do with your defense? Felipe, although yesterday he exercised with the group, comes out of a knee injury and is a footballer who finds it difficult to get into shape, Nehuén does not finish filling the eye of the Argentine coach who, as he has shown in the preseason, as soon as he had at your disposal to the footballers of the first team, plan to play with the 5-3-2 scheme, that is, with three men behind and two lanes. But it lacks men. At your disposal, pure power plants, which you trust, He only has two: Giménez and Savic (beyond Nehuén, not yet registered). A third man is missing.
One option is to go back to 4-4-2 that has been a watchword since his arrival at Atlético but that, he left last season, evolving to that drawing that takes more advantage of the characteristics of footballers such as Trippier or Carrasco, Suárez himself. The other, converting one of the footballers that he has in his squad into a center-back who could play in that position. He has three men: Vrsaljko, Saúl and Kondogbia. He has tried all three there during the summer, by the way.
The different possibilities
The first option may be that of Saúl, a footballer who as a midfielder loses too many balls but as a winger or left-back has remembered the old Saúl, as in Balaídos. It seems the first option, from experienceWhen there is a loss in that position, that of the Elche is always the first name that comes to mind for the coach. He played there at Rayo and he knows. The other is Vrsaljko. Simeone has tried it in the preseason in the matches of the German tour. Also to Kondogbia, footballer who shone in the league premiere of the champion in the middle but could have his place against Elche there, leaving a gap in the middle for the signing of De Paul. If not, the classic, Lodi on the left, even if that means going back, it seems, to 4-4-2.