da luck： It seems that Thomas Lemar’s journey as one of the Rojiblancos could be coming to an end, with FootMercato stating that Atletico Madrid are looking to get rid of the forward.
da jogodeouro： But his struggles only emphasise a growing problem for the Spanish capital outfit – the young winger is not the first and doesn’t look like the last attacker to fail in Diego Simeone’s system.
Indeed, Atletico have a recurring issue of unsuccessfully incorporating attacking players into their squad. There are exceptions to this, most notably Antoine Griezmann who scored 133 goals for the club, while Radamel Falcao and Diego Costa enjoyed prominence under Simeone as well.
The big fat Tottenham quiz of 2019 – how much do you remember about the last year at Spurs?
The list of flops, however, is longer than Simeone would probably want to admit and has only grown in more recent years. The likes of Jackson Martinez, Gelson Martins, Yannick Carrasco and even Kevin Gameiro have been largely subpar and all commanded a decent fee back when they were signed.
Martins could only bag one in just 12 games, Martinez lasted just half a season before being sold, Carrasco netted 23 in 124 and Gameiro 27 in 82.
And they are not the only ones – the list could go on. Of course, every club has flops and that’s nothing new but Atletico’s long search for a capable forward still continues – Alvaro Morata is the only attacker to score more than twice for them in La Liga this season – and their issue of not being able to find someone compatible cannot really be ignored for much longer.
Lemar is another name to add to that list and if the ineffectiveness of their forward players ultimately boils down to the way Atletico play, perhaps it’s time for a change.