Carrasco lethal with both feet



After a stellar start to the season, Diego Simeone has had no qualms with allowing Yannick Carrasco to go about his work as he sees fit, and the Belgian has responded in the best possible way, scoring seven goals and with both feet.
A player of obvious talent, Carrasco's campaign has been so good in scoring terms that only Antoine Griezmann is ahead of him with eight.
It has led to the attacker becoming a favourite of supporters and teammates alike.
A contract renewal until 2022 with a 100 million euro buyout clause is just the latest example of how highly regarded Carrasco is by Atletico Madrid.
He returns to the scene of his first goal, Real Sociedad's Estadio de Anoeta, on Saturday, a game where he came on as substitute in 2015/16, replacing Angel Correa after 62 minutes.
Half an hour later and goalkeeper Rulli had become his first victim.
Since then, another 11 goals and of his 12 so far in his Atleti career, six have been with his right foot and six with his left - equally masterful on either side.
His debut strike came after receiving the ball into space from Fernando Torres and he repeated the trick from the left in the Estadio Mestalla against Valencia.
Celta Vigo, Bayern Munich and Rostov have all been his victims too.
A hat-trick against Granada with his right leg has been his best goalscoring game so far, perhaps his worst was the Champions League final where his super strike came to nothing.
And now he returns to where it all began and with his future sorted.
Things couldn't really be any better for Yannick Carrasco.Belgian side Genk to thank for the initial development of Yannick Carrasco, with the part that their technical director Michel Ribeiro played a secret until now.
The player was still only 13 when there was a knock at his door in Vilvoorde, and Genk would shape Carrasco's football trajectory and direction until he was 17 years of age."I was the technical coach of Yannick Carrasco for four years," Ribeiro said.
"We had him for an hour on two days a week, trying to teach him the skills required."Genk were well known for producing players of the highest quality such as Kevin De Bruyne, Divock Origi, Thibaut Courtois and Christian Benteke, and Ribeiro wanted to add Carrasco to that list."Carrasco used both feet from the beginning, we just had to correct certain things in his game," he continued.
Ribeiro has seen hundreds of youngsters pass through his hands but only a few have ended up in the elite of world football.
It is the law of football of course, but he was clear from the beginning that Carrasco had something special about him.
''I will never forget the pleasure he felt playing football, he always wanted to win,'' the Belgian coach noted.
At 17 years of age, Monaco came in for him.
" Monaco had seen him play at our academy and had already contacted him ... as other clubs in Spain had done!'' Ribiero, who still maintains contact with Carrasco, said.
"Although he has changed now, Yannick still has the same love for football as he always did but is much stronger and faster.
"A nightmare for defenders,'' he concluded.
Certainly, Diego Simeone and his technical team has influenced those improvements during Carrasco's time at Atleti.
And to think that he arrived at Genk as a street kid.
His mother has told a thousand times that her son would use the local park as his second home and even once he'd reached the Belgian side his football was still the same, but had simply moved from the streets to the pitch.
Hard work ever since has seen to it that the Rojiblancos now have a born winner in their ranks.

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