Simeone has a gold mine

The five changes are doing well for Atlético. The new regulation, which has increased possible substitutions during games by two, has become a magical resource for Simeone, that in the three games after the break has exhausted 14 of the 15 possible spare parts with full success: four of the team's eight goals They have been obtained by footballers left from the bench.

The last of them, Vitolo's to give the victory against Valladolid. The game had choked Atlético, while Cholo looked for variants from the bench (Koke, Carrasco, Correa and Diego Costa). The canary jumped to the green in the 72nd minute in the place of Marcos Llorente as the fifth and last change and less than 10 minutes later He managed with a header to do the goal that in the end was definitive to assault the third place. Of course, the fact that a substitute is in charge of making a key goal is not new for the rojiblanco team so far this year, with Vitolo himself in the lead, since his goal against Valladolid was third in the League and all of them coming off the bench.

The canary followed the same script on the second day, achieving both the victory in Butarque against Leganés after having entered the match in the 60th minute. In the next match Atlético lost 1-2 at halftime against Eibar when Vitolo's departure was accompanied by his equalizing goal. Later it would be Thomas, also substitute, the author of the final 3-2. To go to the next as much of a substitute you have to go to day 11, when Morata put Atlético ahead in Mendizorroza, although Lucas Pérez would end up tying.

On matchday 18 Correa jumped onto the Benito Villamarín pitch with the game stuck, but as soon as he entered he would get past Joel to overtake Atlético and later assisted Morata to sentence the victory against Betis, made up in the final moments by Bartra. On Matchday 25 João Félix returned to the field of play after overcoming a muscle injury marking Atlético's 3-1 against Villarreal. Although never had a bench been as productive face to door as last Wednesday against Osasuna, when Marcos Llorente, Morata and Carrasco they propped up the rout in El Sadar with three goals coming from substitutes, with special brilliance of the '14' assistant in the other two goals.

The substitutes, capitals in Champions

Total, 10 of Atlético's 38 league goals have been scored by players who came off the bench (26.3%). Also in Champions they have been completely decisive, with their own Llorente making a key double in Anfield and Morata setting the score for the 2-3 final after starting the round of 16 meeting as substitutes. In the group stage, Herrera scored the equalizer against Juventus after being the third rojiblanco change (2-2) and Morata scored the winning goal against Bayer Leverkusen (1-0) as a substitute. And in the Spanish Super Cup, Koke scored against Barcelona the goal that opened the scoring when he had a minute on the field.

A relevance of the bench that now increases even more with the five possible substitutions and of which Simeone already warned before retaking the League against Athletic Bilbao. “The greater the ability of the group to understand its importance, either in 20 or 70 minutes, there will be the differences of the teams. We have already seen in the games being played that people who come in fresh end up being decisive, so more than ever they depend on the group. What we said that five minutes is a lot, now they will have a lot of value in the game. “They were the premonitory words of Cholo, who knows that he has some substitutes who are worth their weight in gold.