An uncontrolled power. A perfectly neat mess. The natural relay of Diego Diego Simeone, has decided, it seems, that will be the role that Thomas Teye Partey will assume when the captain leaves the boat.
In the past dawn, three rojiblancos soldiers stood out above the others. Blessed coincidences. The three mediocentros. The Captain, Gabriel Fernandez Arenas, the Emperor, Augusto MatÃas, also Fernandez, and that Ghanaian boy on which will fall the 5 that the director of the orchestra mattress took, and no, this one does not share last name.
Thomas Partey is the trombone between violins in Simeone key. In an eleven where the tactical order prevails, knowing how to take care of the site, has already broken in with this, three seasons, with the back 22 to the back, a player, a rookie.
Someone who did not understand this, giving in his first steps as a member of the first team an image of wanting to try to do everything, without achieving anything.
And the usual one appeared. Simeone appeared. And he gave that inexperienced "Tomás", as the mÃster says, an exit. An exit in the form of a change of position. Thomas used to be defensive pivot in the AlmerÃa, and arrived at Atletico of Madrid with that idea in the head.
But one day, on January 2, 2016, our boy enters the field with a 0-0 against Levante, in the eternal Vicente Calderón. Going to the desperate, Simeone fixes Gabi in the medal and pushes the rest of the field to press up, to move with some freedom in the opposite field looking for a robbery or a quick transition. And it exploded. That day we attended the first "MVP" Thomas Partey as player of Atletico Madrid.
They say that sometimes you have to step back to stick two forward. Maybe we're dealing with one of those cases. In the 15/16, Thomas ended up playing more thrown to the right, as if of a new Raúl GarcÃa it was. Offering less, but appearing more. The Ghanaian would sign two more goals that season, despite the few minutes that allowed him to dispute, 852 in particular. To goal every three games practically, nothing less.
But the following year, this changed. He did not play any game more like inside right. Simeone's decision was beginning to take shape. Thomas Partey would begin to re-establish himself as midfielder in the double pivot of Atletico Madrid. Or not. After his very good Africa Cup, he went on to play two full games, in Riazor and before Osasuna at home, and stretches of greater weight against Malaga, Granada and Espanyol, surpassing the 45 minutes in the field during all of them.
A broom. An octopus that also added to the attack with his companions if he had the day. That player who lost forty balls per game and recovered forty-one. They were not brilliant matches, but the constancy of this Atleti is a key factor.
Until the catastrophe arrived. The rojiblancos suffered a plague of injuries in the right side. Vrsaljko and Juanfran were KO, and to top it off, Giménez, who was acting in that position, also fell defeated. Given the number of casualties, Thomas was the player who took the charge in the final stretch of the season. For the remembrance, the one in the Gran Canaria area to seal her only garter belt that year, making use of her power and explosive strength.
So far, the figure of Simeone's "5" in Athletic Madrid key is understood only from the hierarchy in the field, the sacrifice within it, or both. Gabi is surely the best recoverer in the opposite field of the last decade in European football. Tiago, the baton of the best Atleti in history, the man Miranda and Godin always looked first to deliver the ball if the sides were marked. Saul, also targeting the double pivot since the end of the season, is a 22-year-old reality who is already a leader on and off the field. Now, what is Thomas? Is the Ghanaian to break this philosophy and become a pillar with his current qualities? And, should you change them to other more "cholistas", or to exploit these to the maximum?
Tiago is already part of the technical staff of the club, Gabi has at least two other springs delivering concerts from the complicated simplicity, and Augusto, although he has more career ahead, remember that also exceeds thirty. In the hands of Thomas, his arrival from the second line, his tactical shortcomings to correct and his perfect disorder in the field based on his resistance, is that Cholo decides to sign a new midfield in the coming summers, or, On the other hand, see that the pharmacy is at home, and more specifically, in the quarry. This is the future that faces "Citizen Thomas, the broom of Simeone".
Credit: Atletico sport