Atletico Madrid are facing an important home tie against Club Brugge in the Champions League, as they once again struggle through the group stages. Los Rojiblancos sit level on three points with Porto and Bayer Leverkusen, while Brugge have a 100% record so far.
Even so, much of manager Diego Simeone’s press conference ahead of that tie was dominated by what seems to be a hot button topic every season at Atletico Madrid. Joao Felix started off the season well, but in the last three matches has barely been used off the bench.
It was asked of Simeone what had changed in his performance.
“He hasn’t changed anything, his teammates that compete with him are better, the manager understands that others are better than him currently.”
Mundo Deportivo covered his answers and Simeone was asked about a previous response he gave at the weekend. Simeone praised Angel Correa’s attitude after their win over Girona, in what came across as a message to Joao Felix.
“There numbers are there to see. Joao is a very important player for the club and the team, we need him, he has not managed to find himself in terms of the most important thing as he understands it, which are goals, and that produces a frustration in his play. The goal will come as a consequence of his work, he is working well, today he trained well and he is on the right track to get involved and be focused on the team, which is the important thing, the other things will come.”
Simeone however took full responsibility for Felix’s lack of production.
“All of it. All of the bad things he does, I do it worse. The frustration he has is that I have not been able to give him what he needs in order to show the football and the talent he has, but it is all mine, for sure.”
Whether he intends on doing so is another matter. Felix seemed to have found his role as the furthest forward player in February and March of last season, but with the return of Alvaro Morata has been dropped deeper.
