The Atlético de Madrid he played his first preseason game on Friday. Before him Numantia in El Burgo de Osma, in the Jesús Gil Memorial. And he did it with an unrecognizable team, where only three players who were proclaimed League champions two months ago formed in the starting eleven: Oblak, Mario Hermoso and Saúl. There would have been a room Kondogbia, but the Frenchman learned in the morning, already in the town of Soria, that he had tested positive for coronavirus in a PCR test that he underwent individually in Madrid to be able to travel this weekend taking advantage of the two days of rest that the template.
Given the multiple absences of internationals, Diego Simeone had to improvise a team in which the lead was formed by Giuliano Simeone Y Sergio Camello. The subsidiary attack in the final part of last year. Both responded well, but it is clear the problem that Cholo will drag during the preseason and that the lack of forwards can reach the league debut on August 14 in Balaídos.
It became clear again in El Burgo de Osma, in case it wasn't already, that Saponjic It does not count for the Argentine coach. He preferred the Cholo align from start to Giuliano Y Camel and furthermore, the first change in attack was Borja Garcés. The fourth was already the Serbian. And this situation does not seem to change the least.
Right now, Cholo does not have any striker from the first team at his command. Joao Felix He is recovering from an intervention to solve the problems that he has been dragging on for a long time in an ankle. The Portuguese doesn't even work on the lawn. You still have to be available.
Secondly, Luis Suarez Y Angel Correa are two of the footballers who later ended their commitments with their national teams together with I gave it Y Trippier. The Argentine played the final of the Copa América, a tournament in which the Uruguayan was eliminated before. But the coaching staff wanted the Pistolero to have more rest after a grueling season, so his return is set at the same time as Correa's, on August 2.
THE DEBUT, IN THREE WEEKS
That is, less than two weeks before Atlético debuts in the league in Vigo. And as much as the footballers are working during the holidays, their pace is going to be low, very low. This is where the problem that worries the most at the moment Simeone: the lead for the opening of the championship. Without Joao Felix, and with Suarez Y belt arriving very fair, the coach will have to think about his plan unless before that date a striker arrives already shot and ready to play.
In this sense, Griezmann is the great desired. The Frenchman wants to return to the Metropolitan if he has to leave Barcelona. It is your only option. But the operation is still complicated. That, or continue the attack that Cholo started with: Giuliano and Sergio Camello.