Simeone?s priorities made clear following rotated Atlético?s win at Granada
Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images
A key win ahead of the cup quarterfinal. Atlético Madrid secured a nail-biting 1-0 win over Granada at the Estadio Nuevo de los Cármenes to record a first away victory in LALIGA since October and only a third this season.
The winning goal came from Álvaro Morata with a tight offside decision going his way ? just as it didn?t go the way of Saúl Ñíguez, as his attempt was ruled out by some rather fine lines drawn by the VAR team later in the second half.
Here are four of the key talking points from the game.
1. Rotations make the priority clear
With one eye on the Thursday night clash with Sevilla in the Copa del Rey, it was evident that Diego Simeone wasn?t willing to take any risks. He looked to rotate his team by resting several key players from the starting line-up he put out. In defence, Josema Giménez was given a rest (wise given his injury record), but the eye-catching changes came in midfield, where Samuel Lino and Rodrigo Riquelme continued to rotate but where Koke and Rodrigo de Paul were left on the bench. Marcos Llorente and Pablo Barrios were brought in to replace them.
TEAM NEWS pic.twitter.com/Q3AqsPeHuN? Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) January 22, 2024
By prioritising the cup game, Simeone may simply have been making a judgement call based on the quality of the opposition, knowing that Granada are not the toughest opponents and Sevilla will provide a much more difficult test.
How...
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