Man in white t-shirt posing in front of an Atlético de Madrid welcome sign.

Alexander Sorloth faces a new challenge away from Atlético de Madrid: all eyes on him

The former Villarreal player is set to start up front ahead of the last friendly of the summer preseason

Alexander Sorloth's signing for Atlético de Madrid came with some doubts among many of the fans of the club. However, the Norwegian striker could not have had a better debut in the friendly played on Wednesday in Hong Kong. In the space of a minute, the former Villarreal player scored a double with which he has begun to dispel any doubts that may have existed regarding his transfer.

Obviously, the signing of Julian Alvarez could be detrimental to the starting line-up of the supposed replacement for Alvaro Morata . Even so, the Argentine will not arrive until next week and Alexander Sorloth will have a new opportunity this Sunday. Atletico Madrid will end their pre-season with a final friendly match this weekend against Juventus in Sweden.

Alexander Sorloth asks for a place

Simeone is aware that it will be a different season to recent years, with more games than usual. Atlético de Madrid had the objective of bringing in a new centre forward to improve the performance of Álvaro Morata . After the option of Dovbyk fell through, the sporting management turned to its alternative, in this case Alexander Sorloth .

Soccer player with the Atlético de Madrid shirt pointing with his index finger.
Alexander Sorloth scored a brace against Kitchee SC | Atlético de Madrid

The Norwegian striker scored 26 goals last season for Villarreal and is keen to earn a place in the starting eleven during the pre-season. He couldn't have had a better debut in the Atlético shirt , scoring twice before the 10th minute of the match. It's true that he needs to adapt to what Simeone needs, but his performance was better than many imagined.

This Sunday, the red-and-white team will face its last friendly match with a clash against Juventus in Turin in Sweden. Everything points to Alexander Sorloth returning as a starter, while he waits for Julián Álvarez to join next week. The former Manchester City player aims to be their biggest threat when it comes to fighting for a starting place in attack, something the Norwegian does not want to allow.

Julian Alvarez takes action

Obviously, the signing of the Argentine striker is preceded by his desire to be more of a protagonist than he was in England . Currently, Julián Álvarez has already won all possible titles with Manchester City, looking for new challenges in his career. For this reason, he arrives at Atlético de Madrid with the label of a world star and, a priori, to be an undisputed pillar for Simeone .

In this way, Atlético de Madrid would have too many pieces in the attacking zone for all of them to start. Considering that Antoine Griezmann is undisputed, there would only be one space left to complete the attacking duo. Although it will be a very long campaign, everything seems to indicate that Julián Álvarez and Alexander Sorloth will have to fight for that last vacant place.