Luis Suarez is set to be benched as Manchester United travel to Spain to face Atletico Madrid.
According to Metro, Diego Simeone plans on playing a back five against United with Angel Correa and Joao Felix up front together.
Simeone’s reason for dropping Suarez remains unclear, but with the history the former Liverpool icon has with Manchester United, he’s not going to be happy to miss out.
With Koke, Antoine Griezmann and Thomas Lemar out injured, benching one of your remaining star players is an interesting decision to say the least.
Suarez has scored 11 goals in 33 matches this season in all competitions, which is far from his best.
He scored last time out against Osasuna but, after recently turning 35, maybe Simeone believes he’s not got the fitness to play in both competitions.
Atletico are having a season to forget in La Liga and find themselves in fifth place, fifteen points behind league leaders Real Madrid.
Interestingly, Suarez has played against Manchester United nine times in his career, only scoring twice. The last time he played against them was for Barcelona in the Champions League quarter finals, winning 1-0.
Still, leaving out a player of Suarez’s calibre is a bold move and it will be exciting to see whether it turns out to be a smart one.