There’s been a lot of talk about Arsenal recalling Lucas Torreira from his loan spell at Atletico Madrid, so it was a surprise to see him make a rare start for Atleti against Cadiz this afternoon.
Sky recently indicated that Monaco were the most likely team to take him for the second half of the season, while Arsenal admitted that they weren’t happy with how his loan spell was going.
Only Diego Simeone will know if the start today was one final chance to see how he might fit into this team, but it didn’t go that well for the Uruguayan.
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He wasn’t dreadful and there were some nice touches as he sprayed the ball around, but he did pick up a silly booking and he was subbed at half time with the commentary indicating that there was no sign of an injury that would enforce the change.
It’s difficult to figure out what this actually means for his future because being subbed doesn’t look like a positive sign, but at least he did start the game so it indicates that Simeone hasn’t written him off completely.
Atleti have also looked better since he was subbed off as it’s allowed Llorente to come back into the centre of the park rather than playing as a right wing back, so it does suggest Torreira isn’t anything more than a rotation option in Spain.
An alternative move would probably be the best thing for him, but there’s not a lot of time for that to be agreed at this point in the window…