Luis Suárez, the leader's touch

The naturalness of a scorer is described by the movements he undertakes, depending on the position of the ball, which his instinct has mechanized over the years.

With 1-1 on the scoreboard, while Koke, Lodi and Lemar touched the ball on the left side, Luis Suárez remained glued to Florian Lejeune.

By the time Saúl connected with João Félix, Suárez had already begun to distance himself from his marker.

The Alavés center-back ended up trying to cover the Portuguese pass to the first post and the Uruguayan waiting in the second to push the ball with the inside of his right foot and preserve the leadership of Atlético de Madrid in the 90th minute.

Another one-touch goal, the eighth of his nine in the championship (his best start in his first season at a club).

Five targets with the left, his bad leg, two with the right and two with the head for which he only needed 13 shots.

The concretion is another of the characteristics of the great dominators of the area and the physique forces the charrúa, 33, to synthesize his benefits like never before.

He does not give an extra run when he has no options to play or recover the ball, but he does not give one less if he senses that he has a chance to finish it off or steal it.

“He runs weird, like he's lame.

Against Alavés he hadn't done great things, but his last 20 minutes in Vitoria were a lesson in unmarking movements and playing to hold the ball and unburden the team, ”they report at Atlético.

"Suárez was where the nine should be," remarked Diego Pablo Simeone.

Equalized in the scorers' table with Gerard Moreno and with Iago Aspas, although without scoring a penalty, for Simeone Luis Suárez has become the scorer he has been waiting for since Falcao found his golden cage at Monaco in the summer of 2013 and Diego Costa first left the club in 2014 to join Chelsea.

Since then, the roster of strikers has been extensive and none has so filled the eye of the Argentine coach.

Mandzukic, Fernando Torres, Jackson Martínez, Gameiro, Vietto, Morata and, again, Costa, did not have the differential point that Suárez has shown in this first third of the season.

After almost 200 million euros spent in the search for a goalscorer, Atlético and Simeone have found in their cheapest investment - six million euros - the striker they so longed for.

"When we had a very good Falcao, a very good Costa and a very good Griezmann, we always came close to competing until the end for everything," Simeone reiterated after the arrival of Suárez.

Only those three aforementioned attackers have exceeded 20 goals in a campaign under the command of the Argentine coach.

When Falcao (34) and Diego Costa (21) did so in the 2012-13 campaign, Atlético won the Copa del Rey and the European Super Cup;

when Costa (36) did it in 2013-14, Atlético won the League and played the final of the Cham? pions;

And when Griezmann exceeded that figure, he played the championship 15-16 until the penultimate day, played another final of the European Cup that same year and won the Europa League in 2018.

Open bookmark

Except for the two goals of his debut against Granada (6-1), with the score already resolved and one against Cádiz (4-0), the rest of Luis Suárez's goals have had a definitive weight in the games.

Against Celta (0-2) in Vigo, and Elche (3-1) and Getafe (1-0) in Metropolitano, their goals opened the scoring and Mendizorroza's won the match.

Against Betis (2-0) he scored the goal that closed the match.

The transcendence and the untouchable condition of Suárez ended up filling Diego Costa.

The Spanish-Brazilian had suspected her departure for several weeks before forcing her into San Sebastián.

First by communicating to the sports director, Andrea Berta, before the game in Anoeta, his intention to terminate the contract and then staging his anger at Simeone for having given him a 0-2 entry on the scoreboard and only four minutes from the end.

The same disappointment that caused the leadership that Morata was not able to compete with Costa has now caused his departure, knowing that Suárez needs to dose efforts and games.

At Atlético they assure that they are still finishing tracking options in the market to try to find a striker who oxygenates the Uruguayan scorer.

“We are evaluating if we bring someone or not.

The sports management is working on whether or not one can come, "said Simeone in the previous match against Alavés.

The coach has told the club that within his possibilities he should look for an experienced player who will serve him to play a quality half hour or to give Suarez a break from the start and to accept that role.

If the club's proposal doesn't fit that profile, it doesn't want anyone.

That is why he closed his answer with that disturbing "it is not necessary for him to come."

Simeone does not want another Ivan Saponjic, with whom he barely has, because he thinks that the first team is not there for the signings to practice.

Cholo does not want an intern who has to give punctual continuity to the scoring effectiveness with which Suárez can give him his second league title.