Simeone’s two “inventions” sneak into the best team of the season in LaLiga

LaLiga made public this Friday the perfect XI of the season within the First Division and Atlético is represented by two names that completely symbolize the aggressive evolution of the crimson and white undertaking: Marcos Llorente and Marc Pubill. The presence of each in that perfect lineup doesn’t reply solely to statistics or particular efficiency. It’s the award to 2 footballers who understood the calls for of Simeone’s scheme and ended up changing into structural items throughout the mattress group.

On the primary flooring of the Metropolitan there’s the sensation that recognition comes on the precise second. Llorente has had one of the full campaigns since he landed on the Madrid membership, whereas Pubill has established himself as one of many nice defensive emergences of the championship. Each are severely aiming for the 2026 World Cup with the Spanish group and, in each instances, progress has had the identical place to begin: adaptation to a aggressive ecosystem that doesn’t grant respite.

From defensive pivot to whole footballer

The story of Marcos Llorente inside Atlético is without doubt one of the most spectacular transformations lately in LaLiga. The Madrid native arrived from Actual Madrid in the summertime of 2019 as a defensive midfielder. The sports activities administration noticed in him a chunk of steadiness, depth and route. Simeone, nevertheless, ended up detecting a lot broader potential. Every thing modified on that historic night time at Anfield in the course of the 2019/20 Champions League spherical of 16.

That double towards Liverpool definitively altered his profession. Since then, the Spanish worldwide started to occupy way more aggressive areas on the suitable facet and located an ideal context to use his bodily energy, arrival and skill to interrupt traces. This season he has as soon as once more proven his most dominant model. The crimson and white group has present in him a participant able to sustaining the aggressive tempo in a number of positions, one thing that completely explains his presence in the perfect eleven of the championship.

Pubill passes Cholo’s hardest examination

The case of Marc Pubill additionally displays the aggressive toughness that settling at Atlético implies. The Catalan defender landed final summer season from Almería without any consideration again, though the teaching employees shortly understood that his circumstances may match higher within the axis of the protection. The change was not straightforward. Through the first months he alternated between irregular performances and a sure problem in decoding defensive automatisms that Simeone considers indispensable.

Two Atleti gamers, current within the @LaLiga Group of the Season 🤩

⚡️Marcos Llorente⛔️ Marc Pubill

🎮 @EASPORTSFC | #FC26 | #TOTS pic.twitter.com/Er7V2txRFa

— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) Might 22, 2026

The turning level got here in December. There a way more mature model of the Catalan central defender started to appear. Pubill settled alongside David Hancko and ended up changing into one of many large names of the crimson and white season. His progress has been so evident that he’s already in lots of swimming pools to attend the 2026 World Cup regardless of not having but made his debut with Luis de la Fuente’s senior group. Within the Metropolitan workplaces they think about that their aggressive ceiling remains to be very distant.

An award that reinforces the crimson and white undertaking

The inclusion of Llorente and Pubill in the perfect XI of LaLiga additionally works as an endorsement of Simeone’s work and Atlético’s capability to rebuild profiles inside a context of most demand. Each arrived with doubts, wanted time and ended up changing into aggressive references within the championship. The Metropolitan parish understands completely the worth of that journey. Ought to they be indeniable with Spain within the subsequent large event? The controversy is already open in a red-and-white key.