Diego Simeone defends his decision to leave Joao Felix on the bench during their Champions League draw with Club Brugge after the £114m forward as seen throwing a tantrum… with Atletico Madrid’s hopes of qualifying from their group in the balance
- Atletico Madrid drew 0-0 with Club Brugge in the Champions League this week
- Diego Simeone used all five substitutes but didn’t bring on striker Joao Felix
- Felix was furious with the decision and threw his training bib to the ground
- Simeone has defended himself and said it was the right decision to snub Felix
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has defended his decision to leave Joao Felix on the bench during their 0-0 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League.
Simeone’s side dominated their clash with the Belgian champions but couldn’t find a way through their resolute defence, leaving Atletico’s hopes of progressing from Group B hanging in the balance.
They currently sit in third place, two points behind Porto, while Wednesday’s result secured progress for Brugge in a remarkable effort from Carl Hoefken’s side.
However, as Atletico were chasing victory, Simeone didn’t call on the talents of Felix, leaving the Portuguese star on the bench despite using all five of his subs.
Diego Simeone defended his decision to leave Joao Felix on the bench in their draw with Club Brugge
Felix was furious and threw his training bib to the ground when Simeone used all five subs
After his fifth sub, in which he brought on defensive midfielder Axel Witsel over Felix, the forward showed his anger with Simeone and threw his training bib on the floor.
Felix later liked a post on social media of a video showing the aforementioned moment of his anger.
The caption of the post read: ‘Atletico need to win, and in the last substitution a forward comes off for a defender to enter.’
When discussing the incident post-game, Simeone defended his decision to leave Felix on the bench.
‘First I thought: we are going to finish the match with Cunha on the right, Joao on the left and Morata up front,’ he told Diaro AS.
Simeone and Felix haven’t always seen eye-to-eye during the forward’s time with Atletico
Simeone decided to bring Axel Witsel on instead of Felix when using his fifth sub of the game
‘But then I saw that they had to the strength to get out with counter-attacks, because of the nervousness that was being generated by our desire to win the match, and wanting to attack, and I understood that strength in the middle of the pitch could give us more security, given that Griezmann started to run out of energy.
‘For attacking, he [Joao] was good, but in order to sustain [the attacks] Axel came on.
‘I think that it went well in terms of what we were looking for, which was sustaining the team in attack, continuing to have chances, continuing to play the match in order to not lose it and go out of the Champions League… In this back and forth of choice I took that decision.’
Felix was clearly not over the snub on Thursday as he scored a goal in training before putting his finger to his libs and ‘shushing’, which was captured on camera.
Felix was fuming when Witsel was introduced ahead of him and cut a glum figure
He has endured a mixed time since joining Atletico from Benfica in 2019 for £114million. Felix took a while to find his grove with Simeone’s side but began to settle in soon after penning a seven-year contract.
During the 2021-2022 season, Felix scored 10 goals in 35 appearances, matching the same goal tally from the campaign before.
However, in total he has scored just 29 goals and added 18 assists in 122 games, which is largely underwhelming for the price that Atletico paid for him.
Since Wednesday’s game, it has been reported that the forward is considering his future, with Felix having played just 29 minutes in the past four games as his relationship with Simeone continues to worsen.
Felix has enjoyed a mixed time with the Spanish side since his £114m from Benfica in 2019
