When Atletico Madrid signed striker Luis Suarez from Barcelona last summer, it was always likely to have a profound impact on this season’s title race in La Liga.
The Uruguayan has indeed had a significant influence at the club as he leads the Pichichi race with 16 goals to his name from just 20 shots on target – a prolific return.
Diego Simeone’s side are enjoying a great run of form – with 51 points from their opening 20 league games this campaign – and currently lead the way at the top of the division by five points with two games in hand over their closest rivals.
Suarez is in a rich vein of form and appears to be reinvigorated in the Spanish capital under Simeone, who persuaded him to join the club from the Camp Nou last summer, and is on course to return the title to Los Rojiblancos for the first time since 2014.
Suarez said at a promotional event, in quotes carried by Marca: “A forward lives on scoring goals but what I try to do is to help the team. Despite being 34 years old, I am hungrier than ever. We are on a positive streak and the important thing is that we continue like this to be able to reach our objectives because the forward does not perform if he does not have a team that does a great job.
“You try to help the team, sometimes you score a lot of goals and other games you cannot do it, but the important thing is that the team scores three to reach the goal.”