Why Atletico Madrid Should Rest Some of Their Stars for Deportivo La Coruna Game

Atletico Madrid seem to have found their mojo again, and that can only mean one thing.

Diego Simeone’s relentless band of battlers have showcased all the different sides of their game in recent weeks, ruthlessly smashing nine goals past Celta Vigo and Sporting Gijon, grinding out a well-earned 1-0 win at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League and then going toe-to-toe with Barcelona in a draw at the Camp Nou.

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When they are in this type of form, then they can quite often be difficult to stop, and Simeone will be seeking to keep the good ship Atletico on course when they welcome Deportivo La Coruna to the Vicente Calderon on Sunday afternoon.

But—perhaps for the first time in what is now nearly a five-year reign—he can approach the game with the confidence that he has assembled a squad capable of winning it in a number of different ways.

With Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern Munich to come in a huge test in the Champions League on Wednesday, Simeone must be tempted to rotate and rotate again for a fixture against a team who are winless in four matches having scored just one goal in that time.

It is a game Atletico will expect to win regardless of the team that is sent out onto the field to start, with the confidence clear from defender Stefan Savic’s interview, above, with the club’s official YouTube channel on Friday.

The Montenegrin seems to have surpassed Jose Gimenez as Diego Godin’s first-choice partner at the back for the bigger matches, and so perhaps he could be one player who drops out as Simeone rings the changes, or the Argentinian could do something different entirely.

Because there are certainly three or four players who could benefit from a rest going into a clash with a Bayern side who will play their league game a day earlier and are in remarkable form under new manager Carlo Ancelotti, having registered six wins out of six—including a 5-0 success in the Champions League.

Godin is one of those players, with Atletico’s rugged Uruguayan defender surely needing to prepare both mentally and physically for the challenge of facing one Robert Lewandowski and the rest of Bayern’s superb attackers.

The defender won’t want to rest, of course, he’s just that type of character, and indeed Simeone might feel a little uncomfortable if he sends out his team without his warrior-like defensive figurehead within it.

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But a pairing of Savic and Gimenez would surely be more than good enough to keep out a Depor side struggling for goals and missing the departed Lucas Perez, who joined Arsenal in the English Premier League late on in the transfer window.

His replacements—effectively the former Stoke City forward Joselu and, even more surprisingly, the ex-Liverpool and Netherlands man Ryan Babel—haven’t quite clicked in front of goal just yet, and against a side as organised as Atletico, they might well struggle to get chances whoever plays in defence.

At right-back, Sime Vrsaljko made his club debut in place of Juanfran in the win over Sporting before Juanfran came back for the Camp Nou, and so there would be little surprise if the Croatian came back in for this more winnable clash.

As with most Atleti fixtures this season, though, it is in midfield where the real interest lies.

Club captain Gabi will surely be one of the first names on the teamsheet against Bayern, against whom the veteran midfielder’s positioning skills and awareness are going to be crucial in the face of what could be some sustained and pretty brutal attacks.

We seem to have spent the first few weeks of Atletico’s season talking about this, but at times Simeone has been liable to include too many defensive, cautious players across his midfield, something that he thankfully did away with when selecting Koke and Saul Niguez in the centre of the pitch along with Gabi against Barca.

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If that is to be the new approach going forward into the rest of the season—and it should be—then that means the likes of Tiago and Augusto Fernandez are going to struggle for game-time, with matches like this one against Depor surely their best chance to play.

One of them—probably Fernandez—should start here to give Gabi a rest, with the more mobile and energetic Koke and Saul staying in the team because, well, they are among the best and fittest players.

Then in attack, there are more issues for the manager to face.

It was striking how deep Antoine Griezmann played, especially in the second half, against Barcelona on Wednesday night, with the Frenchman getting through a huge amount of running and closing down the ball when Barca threatened to really hit their stride with it.

Leaving him out is never a decision that Simeone would take lightly, but given that he is the player Ancelotti and Bayern would be most wary of next week, then perhaps it would make sense to start him on the bench here.

Atletico can always call upon him should they need him, and it isn’t as if they don’t have impressive striking options available elsewhere in the team.

Kevin Gameiro—although none too impressive when playing away from home for his new club so far—has two goals in two games at the Calderon, and he would be desperate to improve on what was a fairly anaemic showing at the Camp Nou.

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If he was kept in the starting XI, then the striking spot alongside him could be taken by either Fernando Torres or Angel Correa, both of whom have made pressing cases for starts in recent weeks.

Torres scored twice after coming off the substitutes’ bench in last weekend’s home game with Sporting, but perhaps Correa deserves it more than his more experienced team-mate.

The 21-year-old Argentinean made an immediate and game-changing impact off the bench against Barcelona, where he scored Atletico’s equaliser, and although he has largely been viewed as something of a super-sub by his manager in 2016/17—coming off the bench in four of the five league games—this could be the perfect chance to give him a start.

And although those changes might seem sweeping and fairly drastic given that they are taking out some of Atletico’s best players, they would certainly freshen up the team and leave them with the best chance of performing well against Bayern.

What Simeone decides to do remains to be seen, but after recent results and given the calibre of players he now has at his disposal, he’ll go into it with confidence.

And once Atletico are confident, they often feel as though nothing can stop them.