Atletico Madrid fell to Barcelona in familiar fashion on Sunday night, with the feeling that they were their own worst enemy on the pitch. Los Colchoneros dominated Barcelona for much of the match, but paid for a costly half hour at the beginning. When they did take the match into their own hands, they could not find the breakthrough.
Part of the reason for that was the weak performance of Joao Felix alongside Antoine Griezmann. Without a reference point up front, Griezmann was less effective, but Felix looked lost.
Writing in Marca, Isaac Suarez was highly critical of Felix, who in his eyes wasted his big opportunity to both prove Diego Simeone was wrong about him and earn himself a move to another club.
“However, his 73 minutes have only made the operation more difficult for Jorge Mendes and Atletico. Let’s see what arguments the representative puts on the table, let’s see how Los Rojiblancos become stronger [when he went off], after there was hardly any sign of him on the pitch…” Suarez wrote.
Felix could not get into the game and although he was part of Atleti’s best 15 minutes of the game at the end of the first half, it was Griezmann, Marcos Llorente and Jose Maria Gimenez that were causing Barcelona problems.
Joao Felix's 73 minutes against Barcelona:
– 43 touches
– 0.03 xG
– 11 balls lost
– 1 shot (off target)
– 1 dribble attempted (unsuccessfully)
– 20/24 passes (83%) pic.twitter.com/erVOlSqqSR— Football España (@footballespana_) January 9, 2023
The Portuguese seems likely to move on sooner or later from Atleti, but as Suarez points out, performances like that will not help his cause. Given how much they invested in him Los Rojiblancos are unlikely to accept a cut-price deal. With a contract until 2026, running it down is not an option either.
