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"I did not see myself outside the midfield, but in order to play and help the team ...". Just two weeks ago, in an interview with EL MUNDO, Marcos Llorente did not have all of them with him about the new position in which Simeone had been testing him in training for days. "You feel strange about the movements," added the Spaniard. Either he doubted his chances as a playmaker or he was bluffing. After attending his last and decisive genius against Levante, there are no other options.

Llorente arrived at the hot sports complex of La Nucía, where Levante plays his matches in the Covid League, becoming one of the fashion names, after his episodes in Bilbao, Pamplona or the Metropolitan. And there, in that charming Alicante sports city, he resorted to a kind of ballroom dance step to depart for Levante. His technical gesture, more typical of that Dennis Bergkamp as blond as he, dizzy the Levantine defense that, before the Diego Costa nuisance, ended up accidentally beating his own goalkeeper.

Until that moment, in the first quarter of an hour of the game he had thrown unchecks as if he had been doing it all his life. What must be normal, for example, in the game of Costa, has become something striking, although less and less, in which he is on his way to becoming a former midfielder, given his potential on that last step towards the area of adversary. There are still things to polish, of course. Although the action was offside, Marcos was darkened when he was alone in front of Aitor . Because it is difficult to change in just a few weeks a good part of the schemes of a lifetime. Simeone already said it: "In life he imagined being able to play as a striker".

"I saw that I could receive and, if you turn quickly in the area, it is half a goal. I had a little luck," explained Llorente himself, at the end of the game. "A player when he is well, he notices it, he feels it and everything is reflected on the field," he added smiling.

The case is that Llorente's lungs and legs were a permanent relief for his teammates, who now look at him differently, during the game hour he played. Now they are looking for him. Until that assistance without a final recipient, this season he had four goals and three goal passes. Much more than he had conquered with any other coach in the First Division. And a part of his achievements have come in this restart of competition after the break due to the coronavirus.

Siege without aim

Llorente was one of the keys to one of the best first parts of Atlético this season. Because used to giving away that first act this season, he landed with the intention of closing the matter from the first moment. The rojiblancos made him want and soccer, but they lacked forcefulness again. Up to a dozen times they came to show through the Levante goal.

Neither Costa nor Koke nor Joao Félix nor Carrasco, determined to continue in Madrid when his loan ends, found the solution. And that's why Atlético, who got fed up with shooting on goal, had to grit their teeth until the end. There are already three wins and a draw that, combined with the stumbling blocks of their rivals, have sweetened what seemed to be a difficult road to the Champions League during the break.

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Know more

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  • First division
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LaLiga Santander 2019 - 2020The first 'injury' of Felipe and Carrasco's revalidation

Atlético de MadridMarcos Llorente: "You should not ask for forgiveness for your past, but give everything and earn your love"

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