Diego Pablo Simeone addressed the media this morning from Majadahonda to analyze tomorrow's match against Real Mallorca. The rojiblancos face this new matchday after thrashing Salzburg in the Champions League and directly advancing to the round of 16. The Balearic team arrives at a bad moment after losing the last four matches without being able to score any goals.
The Argentine coach will again be without Javi Galán, who is still recovering from his knee injury, while he has several players at risk of suspension. It should be noted that next week they will have to visit Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabéu in a key match to regain the LaLiga lead. The good news is that he recovers Clement Lenglet after his suspension against Villarreal and Pablo Barrios, also absent in Austria.
Simeone praises César Azpilicueta
Atlético de Madrid has had very little preparation time between the visit to Salzburg and tomorrow's home match against Real Mallorca. In fact, the colchoneros have only stepped on the Majadahonda field today to complete the pre-match training session. Even so, their opponent is not in the best moment and will have very sensitive absences like Pablo Maffeo, an undisputed starter at right-back.
One of the protagonists in recent matches is César Azpilicueta, who has reclaimed the left-back position. "César played a great game the day before yesterday, he went from strength to strength, he has enormous leadership and we will need him, hopefully he can be available," explained Simeone about the Navarrese player. Everything points to him possibly being a starter tomorrow, although he had a workload distribution in this morning's session.
Threat of suspension
One of the major dangers of tomorrow is that up to three important players could miss the match against Real Madrid due to suspension. Julián Alvarez, Robin Le Normand, and Koke have four yellow cards, having to serve a suspension cycle if they are booked against Real Mallorca. The same situation applies to Simeone, who wouldn't be able to coach from the sidelines if he receives another yellow card on the bench.
Even so, the Argentine was able to rest some of the regular starters last Wednesday after achieving a comfortable lead in Austria. Therefore, it doesn't seem like there will be many rotations, with both Josema Giménez and Pablo Barrios returning to the starting eleven, both without minutes in Salzburg. One of the few doubts could be at left-back, as Reinildo and César Azpilicueta want to claim that position until Javi Galán returns.