It turned into a busy weekend for Atletico B goalkeeper Bernabe because, after sitting on the bench at Real Sociedad on Saturday, he travelled with the reserve side to Villanueva del Pardillo on Sunday. The player has been a regular in first-team training under the orders of Diego Simeone but the match at the Estadio de Anoeta was his maiden call up of 2016/17. Miguel Angel Moya was not in the squad and Moreira had retired early from the last training session, leaving Cholo little choice but to pick the youngster.
Bernabe has sat on the bench on three previous occasions back in 2014/15, and each time Atleti emerged victorious. The first was against Getafe at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, the second against Cordoba and the third against Real Sociedad. Curiously, those games all ended 2-0 to the Rojiblancos but on Saturday, Bernabe suffered his first defeat from the bench, paradoxically, also with a scoreline of 2-0. Things got no better for the custodian as on Sunday he conceded two goals against Villanueva del Pardillo both scored by Caio.
Atletico Madrid have a problem, or so the numbers suggest, for they are some way off of their title-winning form of 2013/14. Since Diego Simeone has been coaching the Rojiblancos they have never been as worse off at this stage of the season than they are now.Twenty one points out of a possible 33 compares to 30 in the campaign that Atleti won LaLiga and 28 in 2012/13. Strangely, the team currently have the second highest number of goals scored (25), only being surpassed by the 28 from their LaLiga winning season of 2013/14. Only during 2015/16 had they conceded fewer goals than at this point so despite great defensive and attacking stats, this is not reflected in the scorelines.
Atletico have failed to win five of the eleven matches played in the league, four of them away from the Estadio Vicente Calderon. Draws against Alaves, Leganes and Barcelona as well as losses to Sevilla and Real Sociedad have seen the Rojiblanocs drop twelve points in eleven games - too many to claim the title this season. Simeone himself admitted as much after the match against La Real. For now they are third, but if Villarreal and Sevilla win, Atleti would drop to fifth place.
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