Atletico Madrid manager experiments a novelty in training ahead of Barcelona clash | OneFootball

Atletico Madrid are level on points with Barcelona ahead of the weekend’s showdown and have been in fine form in recent weeks.

Considering that they have a game in hand over the Catalans, they can virtually go six points clear of the Blaugrana with a win at Montjuic.

Los Rojiblancos are thus preparing hard for the massive clash ahead and trained earlier today at Wanda Metropolitano as part of the same.

As revealed by Mundo Deportivo, however, the Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone experimented with a novelty in the session.

A change in attack

The Spanish outlet further that Simeone had a full squad at his disposal earlier today after the return of Alexander Sorloth from a small setback and thus had endless options to experiment with the eleven.

He opted, however, to make a single change in the lineup and replaced Samu Lino on the left wing with the Englishman Conor Gallagher.

Conor Gallagher to start for Atletico vs Barcelona? (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

The idea behind the tweak was simple – to counter Barcelona’s dominance in midfield.

With Pedri, Marc Casado and Dani Olmo, the Catalans have enjoyed supremacy in the middle of the park more often than not and are even stacked on the bench with Fermin Lopez, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong and Pablo Torre to choose from.

Simeone’s idea with Gallagher’s introduction, thus, is to bring in a player who offers more defensive contributions than his counterpart Lino who is the more regular starter.

It remains to be seen who ultimately starts on Atletico Madrid’s left wing on the night for they will look to put pressure on Jules Kounde who will be out of his depth without Lamine Yamal to combine with.