This was not a duty for him. Athletic He turned to him a year and a half ago when he decided to sign a contract with him. Axel Witsel He has been a midfielder pure and simple throughout his career. In some parts, he wasn’t even a traditional defensive center; He was rather a reserved midfielder with a certain reach and scored five goals in his first season in the league. Borussia Dortmundfive years ago now.
No, Simeone wasn’t thinking of him as a centre-back. Of course, he saw him not as an undisputed starter in his plans, but as an ideal undercover football player for players to rest. Koke, De Paul and the “five” starters he has been longing for for two years and does not finish arriving by waiting for the development that the newcomer and the very young can have, Arthur Vermeeren.
33 out of 34 matchups possible
But numbers don’t lie. This Wednesday (21.30) Atlético will play their 34th match of the season, the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals, against Athletic. AND This will be Witsel’s 33rd matchNotably, the only team to lose due to sanctions carried over from the previous year was first place in LaLiga. Since then, the Belgian player has been wearing shorts every time he plays with his team.
Not including Jan OblakWitsel, who played every minute of the season, is actually the player Simeone used the most. Additional This spanned 2,679 minutes over 32 matches, 29 of which were starts and 26 discussed it thoroughly. narrowly exceeds Antoine Griezmann (2,672), however, like Saúl Ñíguez, he participated in all the matches of the course, resurgent after several low-profile runs.
Witsel is already less than 400 minutes away from matching his participation from the entire previous season. And right now the threat of yellow cards piling up doesn’t weigh on him, given Played just twice in LaLigaOne against Barcelona and the other against Sevilla.
Atletico’s constant injuries in defense (reinildo At the beginning of the course, Gimenez And azpilicueta) and the poor performance of some colleagues (savić And They transferred Soyuncu) contributed to consolidating Witsel as the core of the three central defenses that Simeone usually deploys. But this is not only a matter of necessity, but also of merit.
Life insurance in countries
Advanced statistics show that Witsel stands out above other factors: success in passing. According to data from the private portal Fbref.com, he is in the top 3% of defenders in the five major leagues in this respect. 93.2% of his passes are successfulWith very similar percentages at short, medium and long distance.
his air power (0.94 duel losses per match) and cleanliness in duels (0.62 fouls per match, only three yellows and no reds so far this season) also plays in his favor the blind trust that Simeone has placed in him, despite the fact that his 35-year age shows that he can no longer accumulate so many minutes.
Atletico exploring renewal
His age also seems to indicate that his time at the Metropolitan is up. Actually, his contract ends next June, but Simeone’s wish is to continue with the team for another season. Unless everything develops normally and receives multimillion-dollar siren songs (see Saudi Arabia), its renewal would be normal.
Because even in a season as difficult as the current one, with Simeone roaring about the limited rest given to his squad compared to the cup margin of his opponent (accumulating a series of matches on Wednesday-Sunday), the owner, Athletic, Witsel is playing everything. Another was fixed before the people of Bilbao as follows: Mario Hermoso aims to become a substitute player. But just as there is no rest for Atlético, there is no rest for Witsel either.