Why Saul Berjon Is the 1 Eibar Player Atletico Madrid Must Stop in Liga Game

Atletico Madrid travel north to the Ipurua Municipal Stadium in Basque country on Saturday to take on Eibar in La Liga. 

For Diego Simeone's side, it's an important clash in this season's title race, given that Real Madrid and Barcelona face difficult games against Real Sociedad and Villarreal on the same weekend, respectively. Win, and there's a chance to close the gap on Spain's top two; lose, and Atleti's task for the remainder of the campaign becomes extremely difficult. 

Of course, many might conclude that victory should be a formality for Los Colchoneros in such a lopsided contest on paper—one of La Liga's heavyweights up against the top flight's smallest club—but tiny Eibar have been the most surprising outfit in Europe this season, defying their size and budget to surge to eighth in the Primera Division table. 

Additionally, with just three wins from nine games for visiting sides, the 5,250-seat Ipurua Municipal Stadium has proven to be a difficult venue for Eibar's opponents. 

Atletico, therefore, will have to be at their best to avoid a slip-up against the Basques. And key to their performance on Saturday will be shutting down Eibar's Saul Berjon. 

Let's take a look at why. 

Saul Is the Creative Hub of Eibar's Left-Sided Attack

In Eibar's opening three games of the season, Saul watched Javi Lara occupy the left-sided attacking position for manager Gaizka Garitano. But since replacing Lara and making his first La Liga start (at age 28) away to Elche last September, the Spaniard has been a revelation for the Basque club. 

A creative midfielder with superb vision and an aggressive mindset on the ball, Saul has become the driving force of Eibar's forays forward from his starting berth on the left. According to WhoScored, Eibar attack down his side of the pitch 40 percent of the time (the joint-highest figure in the league). 

Bleacher Report

It's no real surprise, given how instrumental Saul is to the team's attacking capacity. He's often found sharing one-twos, whipping crosses into the penalty area, playing formation-splitting passes and skipping between defenders while in possession. 

In short, when Eibar are looking for creativity they turn to Saul. 

Consider some of these examples:

Oct. 4 vs. Levante

• Saul wrong-foots his opponent and whips a cross into the box that forces an own goal from Pedro Lopez. 
• Later, he shapes to cross but instead drops an inch-perfect ball along the turf to Lillo who forces a save from Diego Marino.
• Not long after, he scores himself (we'll cover that later), before splitting two defenders with a sumptuous curving ball to Federico Piovaccari, whose goal is incorrectly ruled offside. 

Oct. 25 vs. Granada 

• Saul chases down his opponent near the corner flag, steals possession and whips a cross into Piovaccari, whose goal is disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper.
• Soon after, he recovers possession and flashes a cross to the top of the penalty area where Eneko Boveda smashes home an equalising goal. 
• Later, his perfectly weighted one-touch pass puts Piovaccari through on goal, but the striker shoots wide. 
• In the second half, he sets up Piovaccari again, hassling his opponent out of possession near the touchline before squaring it to the striker whose shot is cleared off the line. 

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Nov. 3 vs. Rayo Vallecano 

• Saul sends a pass from the outside of his right foot through three defenders to set up a goal for Piovaccari. 

Dec. 20 vs. Valencia 

• Saul places a pass through the legs of Lucas Orban to Piovaccari, whose curling shot forces a diving save from Diego Alves.
• Later, with Eibar behind, the 28-year-old finds space down the left and picks out a perfect cross to Mikel Arruabarrena who shoots straight the keeper. 

Jan. 4 vs. Espanyol 

• Saul shares an intricate one-two with Lillo to break into the box near the touchline, before pulling his pass back to Manu del Moral who scores. 

Jan. 16 vs. Cordoba 

• At 1-0 down, with 10 men and less than 20 minutes remaining, Saul chases down a long ball, wrong-foots Deivid and with precision finds the head of Arruabarrena who equalises. 

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Naturally, Saul has some weaknesses and can be guilty of giving the ball away too easily. In fact, his passing success rate of just 61.9 percent is the fifth worst figure in La Liga for outfield players, according to WhoScored. 

But a major factor in that statistic is the fact that Saul, just like Ander Capa (61.4 percent passing success rate) who plays on the right, is a gambler. His natural instinct is to beat his man or thread a pass through sets of defenders, rather than maintaining possession by playing it sideways or backwards. 

It's why he's the orchestrator of so many Eibar scoring chances (he's created 27 scoring chances in total, according to Squawka, which is 12 more than any other Eibar player). And it's why Atletico must close down the talented midfielder with their characteristic aggression and physicality to interrupt Eibar's attacking moves at the source. 

Saul Is Eibar's Set-Piece Specialist

Of Eibar's 24 goals this season, eight have come from corners or free-kicks, per Squawka. Of all the clubs in La Liga, only Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Valencia have more. 

Of course, set-piece delivery is one area where Simeone's men can typically expect to dominate, but Saul's presence ensures Eibar can inflict their own damage from dead-ball situations. 

More impressive is Saul's threat at such plays is multi-dimensional. He can be unpredictable. 

In the traditional fashion, he excels at whipping fast and curling balls onto the heads of team-mates rushing toward goal. The former Las Palmas and Barcelona B midfielder showed that in his first top-flight start against Elche when he hit a pinpoint corner-kick to Boveda whose header just cleared the bar. In the second half of that game, he then perfectly executed a set play when he found the curling run of Raul Albentosa at the back post for Eibar's second goal. 

Other examples of precise, traditional free-kicks were seen in games against Granada, Malaga and Almeria, but Eibar's clash with Villarreal showed that Saul isn't afraid to be unconventional, either. 

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Standing over the ball just beyond the half-way line looking ready to deliver it into the box, the club's 2014 summer signing instead played the ball to himself down the left sideline. Sprinting to beat Gerard Moreno to the ball, he then flashed a cross into the box with his left foot with Villarreal's defence completely out of shape. 

The result was three rapid shots on goal, the third of which from Arruabarrena found the back of the net.

And though Saul's delivery might not be able to match that of Atletico's Koke, his excellence in set-piece situations is one of Eibar's biggest weapons.  

Saul Is Also a Scoring Threat 

A midfielder with only two goals to his name all season wouldn't typically be a player who would be considered a dangerous scoring threat to opposition sides at this stage of a campaign. But Saul's relatively low goal tally is more a reflection of his positioning—he's so often the player creating chances and delivering the ball into the box from out wide—rather than his ability in front of goal. 

When he gets in the right positions, he can certainly score. Here's the proof:

The former Real Murcia midfielder also displayed his ability to cut in from the left onto his right boot to score against Almeria in Eibar's stunning 5-2 victory at home. And on two occasions this season, he's forced saves with shots from just beyond the half-way line—reinforcing his instincts as a gambler. 

In short, he's rarely afraid to shoot if setting up a team-mate isn't an option and has kept keepers across Spain busy all season—something that's reflected in the statistics. In total, Saul has taken 30 shots on goal this season (46 percent on target), per Squawka, which is the highest number for any Eibar player. 

So if there's one man Atletico Madrid must stop at the Ipurua Municipal Stadium on Saturday, it's undoubtedly Saul. 

Follow @TimDCollins