Attacking actions of “Atlético" of the last season were, to put it mildly, bad, and sometimes just terrible. The main weapon in the attack, exactly in the position of a centre-forward, was Alvaro Morata. He became the team's top scorer in the championship (12) (!) goals. And the exclamation mark here shows not a delight with the number of goals, but a disappointment with "los colchoneros" playing in the attack. But the Spaniard has never been a real goalscorer: he was always better at "bringing the shells" rather than using them to hit the opponent's goal. So it was in Juventus, when the team reached the Champions League final, and in Chelsea. In Real Madrid, for some reason, he never got along, although during his second coming he scored 21 goals, while not being the player of the starting 11. And now Morata has another second coming. In Juventus. And Atlético quickly found a replacement for the Spaniard.

​​7 years later, Barcelona presented their super striker to Atlètico again. In 2013, David Villa moved to "los colchoneros" camp for € 12.5 million. Suárez went to red-and-white team even cheaper. Exactly for free. Yes, many sources wrote that Atlètico will pay 6 million €, but this is only if Diego Simeone's team will enter the Champions League at the end of the next two seasons. It looks like Barcelona will get the first 3 million in the summer. And Atlético has already got a new game, formation, style and perspective.

Luis Suárez is changing Atlético's game if only by the fact that he is a very experienced player. Since Atlético underwent a restructuring last season, there were many young performers, in particular in attack (for example, Félix), the Uruguayan who came from Catalunya is probably sharing his experience with other teammates.

On the playing field, everything is simple: Suárez can be invisible for most of the match, and then convert his only moment into a goal. Suárez is a killer. A classic center-forward who knows how to play on the second floor, hold the ball and shoot accurately. He's also good at playing along. In the very first match of the season, Suárez brought Llorente 1 on 1 with one (first!) touch of the ball.

Diego Simeone: "we changed the game because of the arrival of Suárez."

Formation changes in Atlètico

Atlético started the season playing at their standard 4-4-2, but moved up to 3-5-2 in late fall. If Atlético wanted the ball to reach Suárez more often, it would have been desirable to organize a powerful attacking galaxy in midfield, which, with the new arrangement, is the Llorente-Koke-Lemar trio participating in the promotion of the ball. Suárez can play with his head, but he is still more comfortable playing with the ball on the ground. With this variety of players in the midfield, Atlètico has more room to maneuver on the pitch, moving the ball faster while changing direction frequently. But let's start in order.

Lemar is essentially a flank player, but now he is more centered, although he has been playing more freely recently: he has more space in which he can fully express himself: what he used so well in Monaco. When there is no space, Lemar creates it himself (in particular, 87.5% of successful dribbles in the current season): it turned out that he does it better in a new position.

Llorente was considered a defensive player until March 2020, but Simeone revealed a completely new face in him: now Marcos can play in the "10" position, on the flank of midfield, or even in the forward position. He is quick, agile, and rarely misses his chances.

Koke is the second best assistant among Spanish La Liga players in all competitions from 2013 to 2018 (107 assists). Words are no longer required. Atletico's new formation returns Koke to the role of creator, not destroyer. Last season, when Marcos Llorente had not yet been revealed in a new role, and Atlético played in the old way, Koke was forced to perform more defensive functions.

Thus, all the players of the midfield line win: in addition to Koke, Llorente and Lemar, Trippier and Lodi join. Both defenders were bought by Atlético back the last year for a style change. In the new formation, they get more freedom, and therefore more connections to the attack, because in their rear, in any case, Savic, Giménez and Felipe will insure them. Carrasco can also be used on one of the flanks.

In addition to the midfield players, João Félix, who plays next to Suárez in attack, can also act as an assistant. Interesting fact! Only last season, the Portuguese gave 18 assists for a “rendez-vous" with the goalkeeper for his partners, which were not implemented. When there is Suárez, 90% of such chances will be used properly, which means that Atletico will win as a team, and Félix will be relieved of the extra pressure exerted on him by journalists only due to the failure of his teammates to use big chances.

To summarize, this season Atlètico will hardly stop at 51 goals scored and 70 points gained. Luis Suárez is a huge game-changer for Atlético.