Spanish football is in crisis and Atlético Madrid is the best example. The club has even managed to finish behind Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the Champions League, which is currently only the privilege of VfL Bochum and Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga. At this point at the latest, the alarm bells should ring that one or the other has to be changed. According to Cadena SER, some stars are on the sales list.
Atlético Madrid cannot be satisfied at all with the current first half of the season. In the league, the gap to long-term rivals Real and Barca is nine and eight points, respectively, and in the Champions League they were eliminated without a word behind FC Porto, football giants FC Bruges and the Werkself from Leverkusen obviously got bad pills from Bayer before this season. Now some players are to be sold who are currently performing well below their actual level.
The most prominent name on Cadena SER’s list is João Felix. The Portuguese arrived from Benfica in the summer of 2019 for an incredible €129m. While the attacker undoubtedly has superior abilities, things aren’t going well for him at all. It wasn’t until Matchday 12 that he scored his first two goals of the season in La Liga with a brace, but it’s telling that the club still lost 3-2 at home to Cádiz. Another farewell candidate is the Argentinian Rodrigo de Paul. The 28-year-old only joined from Udinese Calcio in the summer of 2021 and cost the Madrilenians €35m. In the current season, however, the central midfielder has mostly only made part-time appearances. In the Champions League, for example, he was allowed to play exactly one half three times. It looks like Atlético would prefer to go for Koke, Niguez and Llorente after all.
Yannick Carrasco finds himself in a similar situation. Winger has a starting eleven quota of exactly 50 percent in both the league and the Champions League. He wasn’t really effective in La Liga, where he has one goal and zero assists. His record in the premier class is a little better, with one goal and two assists. However, we know what it did, and it should also be mentioned that he marked two of his three scorers against Leverkusen. Quite a few players are currently able to do this against Bayer 04. With Carrasco, an Atlético veteran would still go. Aside from a China adventure that turned out to be a bad idea, the Belgian has been playing in the Spanish capital since 2015. The last of the bunch is Thomas Lemar, who has also been playing for Atlético since 2018 after leaving Monaco for 70 million euros was committed. However, the Frenchman never made the leap from talent to world-class player and has been rather mixed this season. In the league and champions league he managed a single scorer, although he was usually only allowed to play as a joker. Nevertheless, Lemar is a player who will probably not make the big leap anymore. The idea of ??a sale seems quite conclusive. Maybe Simeone should just rethink his style of playing football. The offensive players in particular just don’t really come into their own, which is a shame with players like João Felix. The days when you could somehow choke your way through with one 1-0 after the other just seem to be over.
This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as Atlético plans upheaval: João Felix and other stars on sale list.
