Yannick Carrasco Emblematic of Atleti's Arch, but He's Made for Premier League

To borrow a line from Jurgen Klopp, if you could shoot like Yannick Carrasco you'd probably try it all the time; you'd probably get up in the morning and just shoot the f--king ball around in the garden or something.

Though Klopp was actually referencing Philippe Coutinho with such a line in a chat with the Liverpool Echo, it applies equally to Carrasco. Even if you suspect he has better things to do with his mornings, the Atletico Madrid winger can hit them with the best of them. Sunday night was a reminder.

Watching Carrasco find the bottom corner with a looping volley from 25 yards out at 2-1 down in the dying minutes against Celta Vigo was to forget how difficult such a skill is. Almost nonchalant, brutal and graceful all at the same time, it was the footballing equivalent of one of those Roger Federer smash forehands when facing break point.

"The volley came off perfectly for me," the Belgian told El Transistor (h/t ESPN FC). "I hit it very well, sometimes you don't catch it and it could fly into the crowd, but this time it went perfect." 

Like is the case for many, Carrasco wasn't quite able to match his genius with verbal eloquence. Even the greatest struggle to explain how they do what they do, but this is what Carrasco does. Or, perhaps more accurately, what he had been doing. 

When his shot found the netting late on Sunday night, propelling Atletico on their way to a comeback victory, it broke an almost three-month-long scoring drought for Atleti's No. 10. And in case you'd forgotten, three months in football is a long time. 

It was only in October and November when Carrasco was among the hottest players on the continent. Six goals in a two-week spell had both him and Atletico flying, and, in a way, the Belgian was emblematic of his team's surge. 

A flyer out wide, all storming runs, mazy dribbles and powerful shooting, the former AS Monaco man was everything Atletico were embracing and striving to become. Suddenly unshackled by Diego Simeone, Atleti were blazing through a transformation: Gone was the two-man midfield shield. Gone were the midfield workhorses as notional wingers. Gone was the deep defensive line. 

Others were involved, but Carrasco was the symbol of the shift. He scored the winners against Bayern Munich and Rostov, plundered a hat-trick to go with two assists against Granada and ripped apart Malaga with two more blows. 

"I'm very happy for Carrasco," Simeone said at the time. "He is a very complete player, with a bright future ahead of him. He is on the path to getting even better."

But like with the team's surge, the Belgium international's form has mirrored Atleti's subsequent slump, becoming emblematic of the arch that has become their season. 

What began as a transformation has become an identity crisis at the Vicente Calderon. In embracing a new existence, Atleti lost a sense of who they were. In a way few envisaged, becoming more expansive wasn't simply a matter of adding to what was there. Instead, it meant sacrificing something. 

Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

That something was control. For Atleti, opening themselves up literally meant opening themselves up. Sevilla cut through them, Real Sociedad outplayed them and then Real Madrid butchered them. All those qualities that had defined them—defensive resilience, the comfort in "suffering," the capacity to suffocate—weren't quite there anymore. So they've tried to go back. 

It's left Atleti at an awkward halfway point. They're not what they were but they're not who they wanted to become, either. That they had to battle past Celta demonstrated the point; a year ago, you'd never have seen an opponent waltz the length of the pitch to score as Celta did for their second goal on Sunday.

Every player at the Calderon has suffered to a degree throughout, but few more than Carrasco. His is the skill set that the team initially moved toward before then retreating away from it. Goals dried up. Substitutions became regular. Bottles were kicked. 

In a world where touchline strops are increasingly becoming a thing—see Alexis Sanchez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Diego Costa in recent times—there's no more sure-fire way to start transfer speculation than a good performance next to the bench. 

When substituted against Alaves last month (his sixth consecutive start in which that had happened) Carrasco's response was to launch a bottle with the same venom of his volley against Celta. It was his most accurate touch of the day. 

"When I get angry coming off it is not with the boss, it is with myself," he said on Sunday of the incident. "The boss said nothing to me about kicking the water bottle, a player must have character. When I am taken off I am angry with myself, not the change, I get angry when things do not go for me."

Though Simeone has since downplayed the incident, Cadena COPE reported that the Argentinian told the winger "the team is not at your service, you are at the service of the team." Confrontations at football clubs are regular occurrences, but it contributes to the sense that not all is well at the Calderon. That the end of a cycle is approaching. 

When the season reaches its end, you'd expect Carrasco will be among a number of Atletico players being pursued in the market. The Sun reports that Arsenal, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are all interested, but even if others have been deterred by the Belgian's sharp arch in 2016-17, they shouldn't be. 

Though to an English audience Carrasco might be best known for kissing his girlfriend in a goal celebration and continuing the strong traditional of handing out pain to Arsenal in the Champions League round of 16, the 23-year-old is made for the Premier League.  

Whereas both Atleti as a team and La Liga as a competition have kept his instincts restrained to a degree, the frenetic nature of England's top division would suit a player who always seems irritated when such a quality is absent. 

At least four of the Premier League's top six could accommodate him. At both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, he'd fit neatly on the left side of the attack. At Manchester United, he'd be a more natural wide man than Anthony Martial or Marcus Rashford. But it's at Chelsea where he looks the most logical fit, where he could be a successor to Eden Hazard. 

Carrasco's Belgium team-mate has his sights set on the Ballon d'Or. "[I don't want] to be in the top 23 but to be in the top five. Yes, I want to reach that level," he said in November.

Hazard will know that being at Real Madrid or Barcelona borders on being a necessity for that. "If I ever leave Chelsea," he recently told the Guardian, "it will be after winning the league."

Hazard is right on track for that this season. Chelsea have an obvious place to look for a replacement if he does.