Why Raul Garcia Remains a Pivotal Player for Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid's new Liga campaign got up and running with a 1-0 home victory over Las Palmas on Saturday, with Antoine Griezmann netting the winner in the first half as the Vicente Calderon fans got their first glimpses of a handful of summer additions.

In amongst those new faces and changes, Griezmann scoring wasn't the only reassuringly familiar thing about Atleti: Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez were strong and kept a clean sheet, Koke's set-piece delivery was almost inch-perfect and Raul Garcia made a second-half appearance as substitute.

The veteran midfielder has an offer on the table to leave for Athletic Bilbao, per AS, and probably more regular first-team football, but he remains a big player for Atletico Madrid and it seems evident the manager wants him to stay. It's not hard to see why, with Garcia still having plenty to offer this Atleti squad, which is packed with quality.

Simeone Prototype

Godin and Koke might be the embodiments of the manager, Diego Simeone, on the pitch from kick-off, but if there's a man who comes into the match later on who represents the same demanding outlook, it's most certainly Raul Garcia.

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The two-time Spanish international has plenty of know-how with his timing and runs, is aggressive on and off the ball and will organise and direct his team-mates from the moment he enters the pitch. This isn't a player who only comes on as substitute, either: Twenty-seven of his 47 appearances in all competitions last term came as starts, clocking up almost 2,800 minutes of game time all told. Whether in the XI or the 18 for any given match, the only surefire bet is that Simeone wants him to play some part, all the time.

Garcia played in every Champions League fixture last season, all but one of the Liga games he wasn't suspended or injured for and all four Copa del Rey fixtures against Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Whether he plays 10, 30 or 90 minutes, Garcia is as important to the overall aspect of the team as captain Gabi or striker Antoine Griezmann—it's simply that Simeone regularly alters the way in which he utilises his No. 8.

Offensive and Defensive Reinforcement

One of Garcia's best attributes is that he has a tremendous understanding of the flow of a game and how to manipulate that to Atletico's advantage.

There are games Atleti are winning comfortably when he comes on and he'll keep passing the ball, moving and offering himself to take back possession and ensure a rhythmic, inoffensive passage of play to wind down time. If he comes on and they're a goal behind, however, he'll be a snarling, aggressive menace, in the face of the opposition as soon as he comes on and in the referee's notebook minutes later, more likely than not.

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Whether aiding the attack by providing an aerial threat and a penalty-box presence or helping out defensively by pressing high, putting in challenges and sitting narrow from the flank, Garcia's traits make him an obvious go-to man from the bench. He can also play in various positions, with right midfield being his most frequent but also as a supporting forward or central midfielder.

Last year he allowed Simeone to move from 4-4-2 to a more strict and defensive-minded 4-4-1-1 at times, this opening weekend he offered a blend of solidity and link play from the right side of the forward line in a 4-3-3.

All this Youth...

One other factor about Atletico's squad is important to note, aside from its depth and quality: the youthfulness of much of it.

First-choice goalkeeper Jan Oblak is 22, centre-back Gimenez is only 20. In midfield there are the likes of Saul Niguez, Oliver Torres and Angel Correa all at 20, while Koke (23), Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (21) and Luciano Vietto (21) have plenty of experience but remain young in years.

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For an aggressive, demanding and wily team such as Atletico's, these youngsters need the likes of Raul Garcia (29), Tiago Mendes (34) and Gabi (32) around them. Sure, on talent alone they could probably see off most of La Liga—but when an opposition grizzled midfield veteran starts to kick, trample upon and verbally attack these youngsters, can they stand up to the task of staying in the game mentally? Perhaps so, but you can be sure they'll do a much better job of it if Garcia or Gabi are first on the scene to seek retribution.

We've got your backs, kids, so you can keep your legs.

The whole ethos of building a team with as much togetherness and spirit as Atletico have means it's not just about individual talent and offensive creativity that win games. Simeone has built success on the players fighting for each other and for him, on positional discipline and tactical intelligence.

Garcia is a huge part of that still and, until some of those younger talents have the backlog of games behind them to show they can step out and flourish alone in the consistent manner which La Liga demands, there will always be a big role to play for the elder statesmen of the squad.

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