There are games that change the lives of footballers. It happened to Marcos Llorente in Liverpool, in the last match that Atlético played before confinement. It happened to Marc Pubill on November 26 against Inter Milan.
Until that day the Atlético defender had barely played 37 minutes spread over three games and always as a substitute. Like so many other Atlético signings since Simeone sat on his bench, he had to do his service. It took him a while to make his debut, he didn’t do it until the fourth matchday of the League, against Villarreal. Afterwards he played a few minutes in Liverpool and a few others against Rayo, before being again full-time spectator for ten gamesseven in the League and three in the Champions League. Until that half hour against Inter, when the Italian team pressed and Atlético resisted. Atlético ended up winning and something had already changed in Cholo’s way of looking at the Spanish international in the lower categories.
In the next match, against Oviedo in the League, he appeared again, but in a strange position for him, like central defense. And it has remained there ever since. He only stopped playing against Barcelona and has played the next four games in full. «He waited for his moment, he worked with humility, with dedication, knowing that his conditions were important. He didn’t have the opportunity before because there were teammates who were doing very well,” Simeone explained after the last League game against Girona.
«Marc continues in continuous progression, It won’t take long to reach the Spanish team, for sure,” said Cholo. after defeating Valencia. To Pubill, who was already an Olympic champion under the orders of Saints Déniayou only have to reach the absolute. “I think the signing of Marc Pubill is a great success and he is showing Cholo with work that he can count on him,” says the former coach, who is not surprised by the red-and-white player’s career. «On a day-to-day basis he is a beast at work, he dedicates hours and hours to preventionto preventive work, and then training, he is also a guy who trains very hard, who trains hard and who “He wins the position many times because of his state of form and how he trains,” says Santi. to THE REASON.
He, who together with Roberto Solozábal formed the central couple in the double with Antic, sees a certain logic in Pubill’s move from the wing to the center of the defense. «He can perfectly play you as a winger and as a center back. Also due to its physical composition, let’s say, tHe has height, he has strength, he can get the ball out and he can do it in those two positions.. For a team like Atlético it is important to have that versatility,” he adds.
When Simeone saw a 1.90m defender he imagined more of a centre-back than a full-back. «When he arrived he was a right back, but I always told him that I saw him more as a center back on the right side, as a ‘stopper’ center back, and that we were going to work on him.», says Cholo. «Keep working in that position where We have stayed late mornings after training looking to progress because I saw that we were going to need him in that position,” he explains.
“He can play as a winger, as a center back, as a third center back,” acknowledges his coach. But he only makes a recommendation to continue progressing as before. “He has to stay away from the newspapers and the nice words that you are going to offer him on this journey,” he said at a press conference. «And when he gets away from all that, he will continue to maintain the work that he has done with great patience. I hope he doesn’t buy the newspapers or listen to the radio,” asks Cholo.
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