Atletico Madrid: Simeone defends decision to leave Joao Felix on bench during Club Brugge clash
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Diego Simeone defends his decision to leave Joao Felix on the bench in their Champions League tie against Club Brugge after the £114 million attacker threw a tantrum… while the 0-0 draw hurts. Atlético Madrid hope to qualify from their group
- Atlético Madrid played a 0-0 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League this week
- Diego Simeone used all five substitutes, but failed to bring in forward Joao Felix. inside
- Felix was furious with the decision and threw his training bib on the floor
- Simeone has defended himself and said it was the right decision to kill Felix
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Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has defended his decision to leave Joao Felix on the bench during their 0-0 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League.
Simeone’s side dominated their confrontation with the Belgian champions, but were unable to make their way through their resolute defence, jeopardizing Atletico’s hopes of continuing from Group B.
They are currently in third place, two points behind Porto, while Wednesday’s result saw progress for Bruges, thanks to a remarkable effort from Carl Hoefken.
However, while Atletico were on the hunt for victory, Simeone failed to call on Felix’s talents, leaving the Portuguese star on the bench despite using all five of his subs.
Diego Simeone defended his decision to leave Joao Felix on the bench in their draw with Club Brugge
Felix was furious and threw his training bib on the floor when Simeone used all five subs
After his fifth sub, in which he brought defensive midfielder Axel Witsel on Felix, the attacker showed his fury at Simeone and threw his training bib to the ground.
Felix later liked a social media post of a video showing the aforementioned moment of his anger.
The caption of the post read: ‘Atletico must win, and on the last substitution, an attacker comes out for a defender to enter.’
When discussing the incident after the match, Simeone defended his decision to leave Felix on the bench.
“At first I thought: we are going to finish the game with Cunha on the right, Joao on the left and Morata up front,” he said. Diaro AS.
Simeone and Felix didn’t always see each other during the attacker’s time at Atletico
Simeone decided to turn on Axel Witsel instead of Felix when using his fifth sub of the game
“But then I saw that they had to have the strength to come out with counterattacks, because of the nervousness generated by our desire to win the match and want to attack, and I understood that strength in the middle of the match . pitch could give us more certainty, as Griezmann was running out of energy.
‘For attacking, he’ [Joao] was good, but to hold on [the attacks] Axel came up.
“I think it went well in terms of what we were looking for, which is to keep the team on the attack, keep creating chances, keep playing the game so as not to lose it and go out of the Champions League… In this back and forth by choice I made that decision.’
Felix was clearly not over the blunt on Thursday as he scored a goal in training before putting his finger to his lips and ‘appeasing’, which was caught on camera.
Felix was furious when Witsel was introduced to him and cut a gloomy figure
He has endured a mixed time since joining Atletico in 2019 from Benfica for £114 million. It took Felix a while to find his group by Simeone’s side, but he soon settled in after signing a seven-year contract.
During the 2021-2022 season, Felix scored 10 goals in 35 appearances, equivalent to the same goal total from the campaign before.
In all, however, he scored just 29 goals and provided 18 assists in 122 games, which is largely disappointing for the price Atletico paid for him.
Since Wednesday’s game it has been reported that the attacker is thinking about his future, with Felix having played just 29 minutes in the last four games, while his relationship with Simeone continues to deteriorate.
Felix has had a mixed time with the Spanish side since his £114m from Benfica in 2019