Did you hear the one about Uruguayan, Dutch and Spanish? It goes like this: everyone would join almost any other team other than the one they are in, but each of them – respectively at Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid – had to fight for a starting place, a role, a position specific. They had to fight for their right to dream of winning the Champions League this month.
They are, of course, Federico Valverde, Frenkie de Jong and Marcos Llorente.
Valverde can only become the third Uruguayan to start in a winning European Cup final if Madrid were to go this far. De Jong’s first season at Camp Nou was marked by injuries, a change of manager and the breath of decline around him. Llorente excelled for Atleti after being forced to leave the club he supports (Madrid) in part because of the emergence and importance of Valverde.
Can any of these three help his club get his hands on the Champions League trophy after the longest and strangest campaign in the 65-year history of the competition?
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They are all football players playing in the sides where iconic players are a decade or more older. They are simple girls in arms, yet they are important, and each could be profoundly influential if their club were to progress to the single stage of the Champions League which will arrive next week.
Take Valverde. Yes, he has played alongside Zinedine Zidane 43 times this season, but he turned 22 just a few days ago and has a deficit of knowledge and experience about Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema of anything between 11 and 13 years old. The Uruguayan – who has just won his first two trophies in Madrid in this his successful season – has become such a ball winner, so clever in destructive is creative side of all that the new Spanish champions do well that it is difficult to understand that so far he has only started five Champions League games. This is a talent still looking for his perfect position, the perfect role, the perfect moment to emerge and adapt like pieces of a puzzle.
For Julen Lopetegui last season, Valverde may not exist. He made the strange appearance on the bench, but did not have a chance at La Liga. Santi Solari favored the Uruguayan, but only in general as someone who gets free change minutes at the end of a game. In line for midfield seats, Llorente – then still at Bernabeu – was favored. How times change and how quickly.
As soon as the Valverde dynamic started for Solari, at Real Betis, Real Madrid won. As soon as Zidane took over, Valverde began to be a regular first choice. He is now influential, successful, a title winner and someone whose star is rising.
“Modern midfielders must be a combination of everything. We are back in an era of total football,” he said. “I love the pressing side of our game, cutting passages, stealing possession … and of course giving goals or scoring remains important. But I try to make my performances a compendium of all these things.”
Valverde really gained his spurs in the Spanish Super Cup last January. There were five minutes left, no less in a Madrid derby, and this time for the medals.
Alvaro Morata was sent off as he ran into goal from a pass by Saul and Valverde cynically hacked the attacker from behind. A red card was marked, a scrum occurred, no goals came from the subsequent free kick (the tackle was cleverly timed just before Morata reached the penalty) and, in a few minutes, a penalty shot was won from The whites, after which Valverde was named the man of the match.
So the value of the Uruguayan and Zidane’s respect for this iron fist and a child’s silk glove are both well established, but Valverde tired during the last games after the restart, has started to see his name listed as a substitute slightly thicker and Zidane’s 4-3 -3 formation – where Modric, Casemiro and Toni Kroos often begin – began to develop the touchstone status.
Will Valverde leave against Manchester City next week, after 2-1 and without captain Sergio Ramos? If so, in what position? Will his powerful run, his ability to win the ball and do damage high on the field give the winners of 2017 and 2018 an external possibility against the City of Pep Guardiola? Perhaps particularly as an impact diver?
Don’t bet against him.
De Jong is a different case. Just a year older than Valverde, the Dutchman’s statistics add up in stark contrast.
A veteran of the Europa League final, De Jong has previously starred in wins over Schalke, Benfica, Tottenham, Juventus, Real Madrid, Internazionale and Borussia Dortmund in UEFA competitions. Mobile and daring, with the ability to overcome opponents or organize a game of passage from the deep, there is still legitimate excitement for what this young man will be able to do as he matures. Of the recent mega purchases of Barcelona (Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann), De Jong has attracted the least criticism, but if he is really a race footballer – and for Ajax and the Netherlands this seems to be the case – when will his club begin to bear fruit of their huge outlay?
What is true is that when he stormed Europe, winning at both Bernabeu and Juventus Stadium last season, De Jong played as one of the two organizing midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation. It wouldn’t be really shocking to anyone if the infamous and profound Quique Setien used such a configuration to try to shake off Napoli’s grip on Barcelona’s ankles next week. The draw is 1-1 draw but the team of Gennaro Gattuso, who eliminated Juve to win the Italian Cup in a display that would have given chills to the Barcelona fans, will arrive with less problems.
Around De Jong, not for the first time, there are some chaotic scenes.
Arthur, who is about to join Juve, has actually become AWOL – home in Brazil and making it clear that he no longer has any interest in helping the club he is about to leave. Arturo Vidal? He enjoyed a short brisk break after Barcelona lost the championship title and was suspended from Napoli’s return leg after his red card in Italy again … well, can anyone remember when the first was played stage? His so a long time ago. Just to add to the debilitating facts in front of a Barcelona team that, of course, has not lost in 35 Champions League games at home, Sergio Busquets is also suspended, which means that excluding a partnership between Ivan on the training ground Rakitic-De Jong is a racing certainty. On the back, Barcelona are struggling to get Clement Lenglet back from a groin injury to associate the ever-solid Gerard Pique, while Sam Umtiti will certainly be absent from an injury and Ronald Araujo sprained his ankle rather badly last end week.
This is a time for De Jong, potentially restored in the organization of the defensive barrier for two men in front of a central defender and behind a creative trident plus Luis Suarez as a lone striker, to make the key impact of his debut season. This is an opportunity to revisit the quarterfinals when they had such a big impact last season against Madrid.
Can he? He? Is Setien smart enough to offer De Jong a platform through which he helps his club? We will see soon.
And this leaves us with Llorente.
The latter product of a football dynasty, his father, his uncle and his great-uncle (Paco Llorente, Julio Llorente and the powerful Paco Gento) have won almost 40 trophies among them – all with Real Madrid. Paco and Julio were defenders, great-uncle Paco was an absolutely irresistible and confident winger – one of the greatest of all time – but Marcos was an organizing midfielder: busy, athletic, orderly, determined. He has not been dominant anywhere else except his loan season in Alaves, where he has been the major drummer for their march to La Liga and the Copa del Rey final under Mauricio Pellegrino.
Llorente had been somewhat lost, somewhat so in Diego Simeone’s configuration when used as a midfield pin, but now the ex-man from Madrid, who is becoming the favorite of Atleti fans, is suddenly a talisman: a striker who scores goals, an invention by Simeone that begins to seem like a small stroke of nonconformist genius. An adjustment of about 25 meters in the launch position made Llorente splash out of the world of defensive blue-collar midfielders and into the galaxy of attackers where superstars ride like meteors.
The experiment started at Anfield in the round of 16. The reigning champions were 2-0 ahead, threatening to break free and appearing deserved winners of the draw. Ten minutes after the break, Simeone withdrew his only striker, ignored Morata on the bench, put on Llorente and asked him to play as a fake nine. There was no one that Virgil van Dijk or Joe Gomez could score while Atleti seemed to arrive behind the box. The goal goal had been entrusted to Llorente.
When Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian made a terrible mistake and kicked Joao Felix straight, Atleti still hasn’t looked anywhere to catch a goal. Llorente took the assistance of his Portuguese teammate, produced a world championship snooker shot in the far corner and the tie had changed. Irrevocably. Llorente reacted like a man of fate. He did the same with his next chance, when Liverpool moved away from him, so with a quick mind and skillful feet, he sent Morata clean for the 3-2 goal.
Lockdown would soon follow, giving Simeone time to reflect, and he declared to his team (besides the media) that he didn’t believe that Morata and Diego Costa could play together. Llorente then acted as a striker in a team practice match, scoring the only goal.
From that day in Merseyside to this, it has been transformed.
Not only is his fun clear, he not only added goals and helps Atletico, but he also injected dynamism on the one hand which, in the end, seems to lose some of its dry conservatism and play with adding energy and energy. Llorente is only a machine gear, but its importance and probability of influencing the progress of the Athletes in their first Champions League semifinal since 2017 have increased exponentially.
Maybe Zidane and Setien could, with small adjustments for Valverde and De Jong, achieve something similar?
The Champions League is coming, where even small tactical decisions, if they click, can make you win the biggest prize.
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