Since you follow La Liga so closely how is Azpilicueta doing? Another player we're grateful he rejected us.
I can't speak as well to him or Atleti I'm afraid. I know Real Madrid particularly well because (for better or worse) I know a lot of Real Madrid fans, so I'm especially familiar with a lot of aspects of the club and see just about all their games.
Here's what I can gather about Azpi...per TM, he's played 948 minutes of La Liga action this year across 16 appearances, so that works out to almost 60 minutes per appearance. That's more than I would've thought from what I remember (or at least the games of theirs that I've seen). I know among CBs that Hermoso and Witsel have been constants. I know among RWB's that Llorente and Molina have been constants in the team, albeit to lesser degrees than the first two names I mentioned. It's had to be rotational minutes among RWB and RCB where Azpi has gotten his minutes, as Reinildo only recently returned from injury after a long-term absence while Gimenez has battled injuries and Savic is simply old and inconsistent compared to previous years.
Looking at this...
Check out César Azpilicueta's records, goals, statistics and playing time for 2023-2024 Match Logs
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In those 16 appearances, nine of them were starts, and the starts have come against Granada / @Real Betis /
@valencia / Cadiz / Real Sociedad / @Celta / Mallorca / Almeria / Sevilla. Only three road starts vs. six home starts, and the highest ranked team on that list is 6th place Sociedad. Against the other teams in the top-5 of the table, he came off the bench in all four games (he came off the bench moments before Girona's winning goal in that game, though I can't remember if he had any blame to bear for that one).
Azpi recently suffered a meniscus injury and is out until April.
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In general, if we're talking Atleti and we're talking threats and all that shit, the under-the-radar guy we need to be alert to (and thankfully I trust Pavard and [likely] Darmian to be up for it) is going to be Samu Lino attacking off the left. In particular, he has terrorized Real Madrid every time they've faced him this year. He doesn't have great first touch but he's excellent with his crosses and has good instincts at working his way into the box. Among fullbacks, he's 99th percentile in touches in the box this season. He's a threat. We know the main attention goes towards Griezmann and Morata, and rightfully so, but peeling back the orange a little further, that's one area we're going to need to be switched on at all times. Thankfully both Pavard and Acerbi are strong aerial players so that needs to be of help off that side.
EDIT - btw, where the fuck is Pajo at? (Can't tag him apparently.) He would be able to break down Atleti better than I could.