Ten days with the future of several footballers at stake

EI Athletic lives established in match by match, aware that depends on himself in the fight for the league title. There are ten days left and the advantage has been shortened, but there are still four points over Barcelona and six against Real Madrid, who have yet to face each other.

But, in addition to the title, the end of the league will do to dictate the future of several footballers in the squad. Beyond the untouchables who always accumulate offers, another series of staff members they have their future in the air for various reasons. Some because of the little prominence they are having, others because they understand that their stage in the club has ended and in the case of Dembélé and Torreira, because their assignments come to an end.

Atlético has the final sprint left and part of its squad will decide its future according to the role it plays in those ten final matches. The main and most surprising case is that of a Saúl who until this season was essential. The man from Elche had six consecutive seasons at the highest level after his assignment to Rayo, each year more fundamental for Simeone. Last season he was the outfield player who played the most (4,246 minutes), but this course is eleventh on the list (1993) after a performance slump that he will try to make up for. El Cholo has always given him opportunities, but, during this course, he has been losing prominence until he rethinks his future. And these last ten days can be decisive for its continuity or its departure.

In the middle of the field there is overbooking and players like Herrera or Kondogbia also hope to count at the end of the course before opening up to a possible exit. The Mexican was very important at the beginning of the course, but injuries and the coronavirus have prevented him from having continuity and the Frenchman arrived with LaLiga in progress and his adaptation process with Cholo is lengthening. Torreira is on loan from Arsenal without a purchase option. Dembélé does have it, but he will have to try to take a huge leap at the end of the course for the club to exercise it.

In defense, with Trippier he fit, Vrsaljko disappears, although with Croatia he is still the owner of the right lane. Lodi has also gone from fundamental to secondary (from the fifth who played the most last year to the fifteenth this), but the young Brazilian player for the moment thinks about rojiblanco. The one who does it less and less is Vitolo, who does seem to face his last months at Atlético two games away from the Paseo de Leyendas (he has 98 rojiblanco games, but in 2021 he has only participated in one league game). An end of the course with a title at stake, but also with the occasion for several players to rebel with their role. Something that, for example, Lemar, Hermoso or Llorente have done in recent months.