The July 7th Simeone meets his players again at Cerro del Espino. That day will begin an important preseason, Atlético defends the league title and aspires to achieve new goals to try to overcome the last season. The Argentine coach will have practically the same template that last season, well not many exits are contemplated, except those of Torreira and Dembélé at the end of assignment, the possible departure of Saúl and the request to leave in search of minutes from Vitolo and Grbic.
The problem for Simeone comes when the ball starts rolling in training. Atlético de Madrid is the LaLiga club that has yielded the most players to the national teams, twelve in particular. This speaks very well of the great performance of the players during the season, but it makes the beginning of the campaign a real toothache for Cholo, who will be with hardly any personnel for physical and tactical preparation and, worse still, they will arrive very fair for the first league games.
If we review the distribution of Atlético de Madrid international players and their projection in tournaments, the thing looks like this:
Europe
Koke Y Marcos Llorente placeholder image They have reached the semifinals of the Eurocup with the Spanish national team, this means that on Tuesday the 6th they have a new match and, if they win, they would play the final of the toreno on Sunday the 11th. If this happened like that, they would be among the last to join the preseason to end of July.
Something similar happens with Kieran trippier, England player, who today will play the quarters and, if there is no surprise, it is quite easy to sneak into the final, so he would have the same holidays as the Spanish players.
A few days before the eliminated players will return with their national teams, as is the case with Lemar Y Vrsaljko, what fell in eighths with France and Korea, respectively, and Carrasco that yesterday was eliminated in quarters with Belgium. These players could be under Simeone's orders to mid July, but they would not carry out the entire preseason.
America
Suarez Y Gimenez the quarter finals with the Uruguayan team. The same thing happens with Angel Correa Y Rodrígo De Paul, which they do with Argentina. If they win their respective quarterfinal matches, both teams they would face each other in semis and only one of them would play the grand final on July 10, so the Argentines or Uruguayans would return a few days before to the rojiblanca concentration.
In the Brazilian team, the only Atlético de Madrid player in the squad is Renan lodi, but its continuity in the Copa América is somewhat in doubt, since it is between cottons after a strong blow to the hip during the last match against Ecuador. At the moment the left-back played the quarter-final match against Chile, and the Brazilian coach is counting on him for the semi-finals.
For its part, Hector Herrera has been called up with the Mexican national team to play the gold Cup, which is disputed from the July 2 to August 1, and where Mexico is one of the great candidates to win the title. The midfielder will miss a large part of the preseason and will be one of the last to join the preseason for Atlético de Madrid.
Confirmed withdrawals
Joao Felix It was operated yesterday for the injury that he had been dragging since the middle of the season in the left ankle, which will keep him resting during his holidays and he will return to training in mid-July to recover little by little. The objective of the Portuguese player is to start adding minutes during the first days and thus be able to be one hundred percent before the end of September.
The most worrying case is the Felipe Augusto, the Brazilian central seriously injured his right knee, with involvement of the external collateral ligament. This injury occurred in the second match of the Copa América qualifying phase, so he has been recovering for several weeks in Sao Paulo and will soon return to Madrid to continue making progress in his set-up. What is clear is that he will not start the preseason with his teammates and his return to training will be determined by his evolution in the knee.
This is how things are for Simeone, who will have to prepare the first weeks of the preseason without counting on almost any of the players that form the backbone of the team. Let's remember that the only players who have not had a commitment to their national teams have been Oblak, Grbic, Hermoso, Saúl, Vitolo and Kondogbia.
And if Cholo had little with his problems, those of the quarry are added to him. The relegation of Atlético de Madrid B a Third RFEF makes the continuity of players very complicated such as Camello and Ricard Sánchez, or the loaned Riquelme, Mollejo or Manu Sánchez, who will look for other options away from the rojiblanco club, where they will not have minutes in the first team and the new category is too small for them.
It is clear that the Atlético de Madrid coaching staff will have a lot of work this preseason and Simeone will have to be patient. Each international player who joins will have specific sessions to get his set-up and help the team as soon as possible, since the calendar does not wait for anyone.