[Sport] Simeone again has competition on the left-back

[#Steeven.™]

Diego Pablo Simeone has always stressed, throughout his nine years at Atlético, the importance of competition. According to the Argentine, for all the players of a team to give 100%, it is key that another teammate who occupies the same position, is on his heels.

All the positions of their squads are usually covered twice, but this season, as in the previous one, the left back was going to be lame. This situation paralyzed the transfer of Manu Sánchez to Osasuna to make him part of the first team, as a replacement for Lodi.

Renan started as a starter, on his own merits, in a demarcation that is key to Cholo's game system. But the lack of competition rhythm shown by the Brazilian at this start, and the inexperience of the youth squad, have opened the doors to an unexpected guest.

This is none other than Mario Hermoso. The Spanish defender arrived in the summer of 2019 as a great reinforcement of the red-and-white defense due to his great gifts as a central defender, but also because of his ability to perform on the wing.

After a first season with more shadows than lights, he became the team's center-quarter. Although during LaLiga 2019-20, he played four games in the left-handed lane, he did not convince a Simeone who ended up using Saúl as a wild card.

Lodi's low form, mentioned above, has made Diego Pablo give Hermoso another chance, which he seems not to want to miss. Mario has played five games to date at this start, two of them (Real Betis and Osasuna) in their second position.

The truth is that his role is very different from that of Renan, since the Madrilenian does not spread as much in attack as the Brazilian does. Its mission is to safeguard the left-handed lane, and for the moment it does so in a remarkable way. Focused on defending, he only attacks when the situation is very clear, and rarely will he be seen rushing the bottom line.

 

In the 167 minutes he has played close to the wing this season, he has averaged the following numbers defensively: 1.5 innings won per game, 0.5 interceptions, 2 fouls, 1.5 punts and has only been dribbled once. In the offensive facet, also important for the Argentine coach, he has distributed an assist (to Llorente against Betis), has caused two dangerous fouls, has a 74.1% pass success and has only been stolen the ball once . Not bad to be his second demarcation.

 

Lucas-Filipe Luis Competition
For four seasons, an event similar to this took place on the same side. Simeone is a coach very faithful to his style and does not usually have different profiles of footballers depending on what position, but the left lane of the Metropolitano -before Vicente Calderón- is different.

From the 2015-16 season to the 2018-19 season, two different profiles coexisted and alternated ownership, that of Filipe Luis and that of Lucas Hernández. It is striking that currently, something similar is being experienced, saving distances.

Lodi is more Filipe, Brazilians with a soul of extremes and with a lot of quality, who like to attack as a general rule; while Hermoso is more like Lucas, left-handed centrals who have enough technique to perform in the wing position, but putting defense before joining the attack.

It should be noted that Mario is much less offensive than Lucas. The Frenchman was promoted to the first team as a central defender, but with the passage of time and Simeone's confidence, he became the 'dagger' that he is now in the French national team and at Bayern.

 

Filipe Luis and Lucas numbers since 2015
Filipe Luis: 153 games, eight goals and 17 assists
Lucas Hernández (data as a winger): 52 games, one goal and three assists

 

Now the left flank of the defense, which at first seemed to be the least po[CENSORED]ted position, has three members, who to make matters worse, they already know what it is to attend this course. So as Simeone said back in 2017: "We will be stronger the more internal competition we have."