Diego Simeone comes up with special plan to stop Real Madrid talisman in Super Cup semi-final | OneFootball

With Kylian Mbappe officially out of the Supercopa de España, Real Madrid will need the rest of the attackers to step up their game and arrive as potent goalscoring threats.

Gonzalo Garcia, needless to say, will be consciously marked by Atletico Madrid after his heroics against Real Betis, but so will Vinicius Jr., given that he will be the single-biggest threat in attack without Mbappe.

In the Brazilian’s case, however, a lot rides on his performance on the night.

After all, he is on a prolonged goalless streak and must show that he can recover his best form amid contract renewal tensions.

A special plan

As relayed by AS in a recent report, Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone is well aware of the threat Vinicius brings to the table.

With Mbappe absent, he plans to mark and devise a special plan to neutralise the Brazilian’s threat.

To achieve the same objective, Cholo has appointed Marcos Llorente to mark Vinicius on Thursday night.

Diego Simeone has come up with a special plan. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

He feels the defender’s pace will come in handy in neutralising the Real Madrid star’s profile.

The 30-year-old has been a mainstay in Atletico Madrid’s plans this season, albeit not exclusively at right-back.

On some occasions, Simeone has deployed Argentine international Nahuel Molina at right-back with Llorente starting higher up as a winger.

On Thursday night, however, Llorente will be tasked with the clear objective of stopping Vinicius Jr and it remains to be seen how Xabi Alonso counters the plan of man-marking. 

When Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid faced off earlier this season, it was Llorente who started at right-back.

On that occasion, however, he did not enjoy a strong outing as he completed just 74% of his passes, won 25% of his duels and 14% of his long balls.