3 Atletico Madrid Fringe Players Who Would Benefit from a Start at Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid’s La Liga campaign might not be going to plan, but things are a lot different in the Champions League.
Negotiating what looked to be a difficult group containing Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven and the Russian side Rostov, Atletico have breezed through the competition so far, winning all five of their matches to become the only team in the competition with a 100 per cent record.
All of which means that the final match of the group stage—the trip to Bayern Munich, which looked to be the most difficult at the beginning of the competition—now seems somewhat irrelevant. Whatever the scoreline in Bavaria on Tuesday night, Atletico will finish top of Group D and Bayern Munich will finish second.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
And so with the domestic season not going as well as Diego Simeone would have hoped, will he take the opportunity to mix things up and give experience to some of his squad’s lesser lights in the grand setting of the Allianz Arena?
Some players could take the opportunity to force themselves into his plans for the league matches and later on in the Champions League, but who will they be?
Here are three men who could do with a start.
Sime Vrsaljko
Croatian full-back Sime Vrsaljko has found playing time severely limited since joining Atletico from Sassuolo in the summer, but half of his appearances for the club so far have come in the Champions League.
Vrsaljko played in the home wins over PSV Eindhoven and Rostov as Simeone gave his first-choice right-back Juanfran a breather, and he surely deserves a run-out in Munich after impressing whenever he’s been given the opportunity so far.
The 24-year-old scored in the 6-0 Copa del Rey win over Guijuelo last week, and if Simeone feels that the time is right to throw him into the action against one of the best attacking forces in world football, then surely he would welcome the opportunity.
Vrsaljko will have spent much of the season training alongside and learning from Juanfran, who of course has his own—often difficult—Champions League history, but if he is to be a long-term successor to the Spain international, then this looks to be a perfect environment to throw him into.
Simeone seems to trust his players implicitly, especially the defensive ones, and Juanfran appears to have earned that trust more than most.
With Vrsaljko being a fairly low-key deputy, and a player who is unlikely to kick up a fuss about not playing this early into his Atletico career, then a game here would almost be seen as a reward for him, and indeed as motivation for him to keep on going and striving to find a more permanent role in the team.
With Simeone expected to leave the club when his contract expires at the end of next season, the Croatian might end up being a player for the next Atletico manager and not the current one. But in order to stop him from getting disillusioned, he’s going to need games sooner rather than later.
This looks to be the perfect chance to give him a start.
Lucas Hernandez
Defensive injuries at the end of last season suddenly thrust the young Frenchman Lucas Hernandez into the limelight in the Champions League, and he passed the test with flying colours.
Capable of playing both at left-back and centre-back, Hernandez played in both legs of the quarter-final victory over Barcelona and appeared as an extra-time substitute in the final against Real Madrid—three appearances of his 16 games across the course of the campaign.
This time around, and largely because plenty of defenders have found it easier to stay fit, he’s had a tougher time of it.
The 20-year-old has failed to make an appearance in this season’s Champions League, making just two starts in La Liga and one in the Copa del Rey among his five appearances in total.
He could do with another game, to put it mildly, and playing up against some of Bayern’s world stars is likely to aid his development as Atletico seek to continue to nurture one of their best defensive prospects.
The son of the former Atletico defender Jean-Francois Hernandez, he’s really got to kick on in his career at some point, and this looks to be a perfect chance to give him a game.
Thomas Partey
The trouble with keeping promising young midfielders at your club is that, in general, they can often struggle to get game-time given that they tend to operate in a position that has the most competition for places.
After breaking through and turning in some impressive displays last season, the 2016/17 campaign has proved to be a frustrating one for the Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey.
Clearly a player who has a high ceiling and one who can get better and better, the 23-year-old seems to be entering a crucial period of his career, but he’s just not getting enough minutes right now.
A loan move might be best for all parties in the New Year, and this could be the perfect stage on which to shine and impress potential suitors.
Partey has played just one minute in the Champions League this season, a minute that came in the 1-0 win over Bayern back in September, and his only start among the five appearances he’s made came in the Copa del Rey win over Guijuelo last week.
An all-action, powerful midfielder who has an eye for goal and can often turn defence into attack, Partey seems to have an impressive future in the game somewhere or other, even if the likelihood of that being at Atletico Madrid seems to be diminishing with each passing month.
He seems ideally suited to the Premier League, and if he can pick up more Champions League experience, then that is sure to help his case if he’s chasing a January loan or permanent deal elsewhere.
Simeone is a man who won’t bow to sentiment, but he might feel that he owes Partey a start here, especially after he came on in leaps and bounds last season only to stall at the beginning of this one.
Few players would have looked forward to a dead rubber as much as he probably is right now, and it seems like the correct thing to do to give him another opportunity to prove himself ahead of some of the bigger and more established names in the Atletico squad.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
