Reinildo Mandava was practically an unknown when he joined Atletico Madrid to many Spanish football fans but the Mozambican has proved himself a resilient and competitive performer – a valuable addition to Diego Simeone’s side, note Diario AS.
The 28-year-old joined the club from Lille and debuted the same week in a 4-2 defeat by Barcelona at Camp Nou. Since then the versatile defender has played 743 minutes for Atletico across nine games of football, with the team conceding just seven goals in that time. With him in the team they concede a goal every 106 minutes; without him they concede a goal every 65.9 minutes.
Reinildo’s qualities were on full show at Old Trafford on Tuesday when Atletico knocked Manchester United out of the Champions League. Despite arriving as a left-back he’s been deployed on the left of a back three, liberating Renan Lodi to go forward and work magic but keeping Mario Hermoso out of the team.
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