Diego Pablo Simeone attended the press room this Saturday morning to answer questions from journalists before the match against Valencia . The boys trained by Baraja will seek to storm the Metropolitano despite the poor start to the season that has them, for the moment, at the bottom of the league competition. Something that the red-and-whites will try to avoid in order to stay in the top positions of the table and thus achieve their second victory at home.
Prior to Sunday's match at 9pm, the Argentine coach has spoken about several issues surrounding Atlético de Madrid . One of the most important issues is the loss of Pablo Barrios , who suffered a serious injury with the Spanish under-21 team, which will force him to be out for the whole month. An unexpected setback at the Metropolitano , where they were counting on the 21-year-old youth player for all the important matches that will take place in September.
Words that were not planned
This is not the first time that Pablo Barrios has suffered serious muscular problems since he joined the first team of Atlético de Madrid . For this reason, Diego Pablo Simeone stated that "we knew it could happen, but unfortunately they couldn't and we couldn't realise before it happened." The coach did not specify, but he suggests between the lines that the problem may be in the large number of minutes that the Madrid youth player has accumulated during the last few months.
And besides playing a lot of minutes last season, he was also a very important piece for Santi Denia at the Olympic Games. A tournament that, despite being really successful after being proclaimed as bearers of the gold medal, has meant that many players have not had the corresponding holidays. Something that could have taken its toll on Pablo Barrios who has had minutes in the first four league games with Atlético .
Homework for the future
It won't be the last time this happens to an Atlético de Madrid player, so it will be very important to prevent this type of situation with muscle injuries. This is what Diego Pablo Simeone believes, who hopes that "we hope it will serve as a concrete situation for the future", being a lesson to take into account.
Pablo Barrios will therefore miss important matches against Valencia, Leipzig, Rayo Vallecano, Celta de Vigo, Real Madrid, Benfica and Real Sociedad . Cholo will have to find the player who can best cover for him during his absence, with Rodrigo de Paul currently the best positioned player. The first test without the Madrid native will be this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. in the first match after the international break.