Simeone and João Félix, challenge by challenge

As soon as they took the index finger of their right hand, demanding silence and exclaiming “Shut up your fucking mouth, caralho!”, With their eyes fixed on the bench area, the teammates pounced on João Félix to celebrate the goal that closed the game match against Villarreal (0-2).

The huddle seemed to engulf the Portuguese with the intention of congratulating him and also appeasing his oppositional spirits, expressed at an inappropriate moment.

He had just scored the goal that ensured the victory of a team immersed in a pothole that went out to the La Cerámica stadium over-pressured by the cut of points that Real Madrid and Barcelona had achieved in the last days.

The Brazilian Renan Lodi, one of his closest comrades, tried to give him a hand on social networks by assuming that the gesture was dedicated to him because he had reminded him that he had not scored a goal since January 24 against Valencia.

The anger with which João Félix made the gesture to shut up and pronounced the imperative does not seem the usual ways towards a partner with whom he maintains a good relationship.

If the outburst pointed to Simeone, he not only accepted it at the post-match press conference.

"I love that the players rebel," he proclaimed.

On the way to Madrid, the coach told members of the expedition that he does not care if more players shout at him if their performance in the game has been decisive or has corresponded with what he has demanded.

In the club, a double reading has been done.

On the negative side, the gesture is considered rude for the mere fact of shutting someone up in a public televised show to millions of fans.

They also consider in Atlético that the noise it has generated is harmful with next Sunday's momentous match against Real Madrid in sight.

The dressing room already received a touch of attention when at the end of November and beginning of December, Marcos Llorente (Lokomotiv Moscow), Luis Suárez and Saúl (Salzburg) and João Félix himself, in the derby of the first round, starred in a carousel of slights towards the bench.

• Atlético consolidates its leadership by beating Villarreal

From the positive, in the club and also some players, they celebrate that João Félix, 21, showed character, that in some way showed that he was bothered by the substitutions to which Simeone relegated him.

The relationship between the two is governed by the same quarterback parameters that the coach applies to young players.

A major demand and corrective speeches and speeches in training.

Outside of day-to-day work, Simeone marks the distances a lot.

The same thing he did in his day with Correa, Giménez and Griezmann.

Of more less

With the numbers in hand, João Félix has played 21 games out of 24 in the League this season, with a balance of seven goals and five assists.

In 12 of them he was a starter, of which in nine he was replaced, and in another three he did not play due to injury.

In the Champions League, three goals, he has started the seven games played so far and was substituted in three of them in the final minutes.

Last season he started 21 of the 27 league games in which he was available and managed six goals and one assist.

In the Champions League he played six of the nine games, started four and replaced in all but the first of the group stage before Juventus.

His substitution in Lisbon, in the quarterfinals against Leipzig, was the most talked about and the one that raised the most dust.

At the start of this season, João Félix seemed to have already earned Simeone's trust.

He scored five goals in the first nine days of the League, plus two in the Champions League.

Atlético showed that more ambitious face compared to previous campaigns and the boy seemed to enjoy it.

Until the derby came and that kick to the air in the Valdebebas tribune.

Atlético lost (2-0) and their performance was gray in the hour of the game that they were on the field.

Then came the cup beat in Cornellà, with him in the starting eleven, the growth of Correa and Lemar and his loss due to covid-19.

Once recovered, Simeone granted him the title in both games against Levante and against Chelsea.

His performance was poor.

When the appointment against Villarreal arrived, he was the only player who did not repeat in the eleven that he faced the English team in Bucharest.

And there came that angry gesture with little team sense that João Tralhao, a coach he had at Benfica, attributes "to the fact that he always wants more, like all top players."