Alvarez Return Exposes Atletico’s Attacking Problems

Marcos Llorente told ESPN that Atletico Madrid need Julian Alvarez to start scoring, after Los Colchoneros suffered a shock 3-0 defeat at Athletic Club in LaLiga on Saturday. Alvarez came on as a second-half substitute at San Mames with Atletico already 2-0 down, but could not turn the game around as the club suffered its first defeat of the season.

“He [Julian] is a very important player for us,” Llorente told ESPN.

Alvarez returns with no recognised striker in the XI

It was Alvarez’s first appearance since the summer transfer window closed, with the Argentine forced to stay at Atletico after the club refused to negotiate a deal with Barcelona, described by ESPN as his “dream” club. That saga, covered in detail by Football Espana’s recent reporting on the Alvarez-Barcelona standoff, left the forward without a competitive rhythm heading into the trip to Bilbao.

Diego Simeone’s side started the match without a recognised centre-forward in the XI, with Alex Baena and Kang-in Lee occupying the most attack-minded roles before Alvarez was introduced with just over half an hour remaining. Jonathan David, the Canadian forward who joined on loan on deadline day, was an unused substitute, a situation Football Espana has tracked as Atletico plan for January reinforcements.

Llorente and Hancko back Alvarez to find his level

Llorente said Atletico must be patient with Alvarez as he works his way back into form. “He knows it. He’ll come in little by little, and the sooner the better, because we need his goals. We have to support him so he’s at 100% soon,” he told ESPN.

Defender David Hancko echoed that sentiment, pointing to encouraging signs despite the difficult circumstances of facing a low block. “You could see [Alvarez] was doing well, he wanted to take [the game] on himself,” Hancko told ESPN. “In a low block, of course he’s going to lose some balls. But you could see those sparks, moments when he turned and shot with his left foot. He makes a difference for us in the team. I’m really happy he stayed. The whole team, we support him, we’re going to stay behind him. We need him and I think he needs us as well.”

A two-minute collapse Atletico can’t repeat

Athletic’s win was built on a devastating spell early in the second half, with Nico Williams and Robert Navarro scoring in the 46th and 48th minutes before Oihan Sancet added a third late on. “We threw away the game in the first five minutes of the second half,” Llorente said. “Those five minutes killed us, and then we weren’t able to put them under pressure and score a goal to scare them a bit… It can’t happen, because we had a good first half. We have to correct it and look at the causes.”

Atletico now face a demanding week, travelling to Anfield to face Liverpool in the Champions League before visiting Real Sociedad in LaLiga, fixtures that will offer an early test of whether the striker dependence already flagged after the Villarreal draw can be resolved with Alvarez back in the fold.

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