A year after his arrival at Atlético after his loan to Valencia, Samuel Lino (Brazil, 24 years old) has established himself as one of Diego Pablo Simeone’s main players. The Brazilian winger did not have it easy because he had to take Yannick Carrasco’s place. Nobody remembered the Belgian after the surprising emergence of Lino, more consistent and less individualistic.
In Simeone’s mindset, Lino’s evolution and great leap forward lie in improving his relationship with the goal. Last season he already tried to instil it in him (eight goals in all competitions) and this season, Cholo has scored a minimum of 10 goals in the League. Simeone projects in his head a player who can reach twenty goals in all competitions.
In his determination to ensure that players who come from the second line are productive in front of the opposing goal, Lino has been under the scrutiny of his coach for a few weeks. He has shown him videos in which he has pointed out situations in which he either shot badly or did not do so. After one of these sessions, Lino was one of the best in the finishing exercises. Simeone congratulated him and Lino shrugged his shoulders and said: “Today I had the day, mister.” The problem that Lino faces in the face of this goal-scoring demand is that he becomes too individualistic a player, as happened to Carrasco, who Simeone also asked for goals. Carrasco often got tangled up at the edge of the area in an endless number of dribbles to be able to profile himself and shoot when he had passing options on the right and left. For this reason, the Argentine coach also works on Lino’s decision-making. Last season he gave eight assists and this season he has not yet scored a goal or in this last aspect.
Atlético host Valencia on Sunday (21.00, Movistar) and Simeone once again insisted on finishing exercises during Saturday’s training session. At the end of the preparatory session, in the assessment that the coach made of the first four league games, he again insisted on the need to fine-tune the finishing. “The worst part was that we should have finished better in the game against Espanyol, the forcefulness that we could not have,” explained Cholo.
There are voices in the club that speak of Lino as a possible future player for the Brazilian national team. There are those who are convinced that if he has not yet received the call it is because he has not broken through as a player in the goal-scoring figures that Simeone demands of him. Simeone demands that he finish plays with a shot, even if it is with his toe.
Lino is a right-footed player who plays on the left wing with his other foot. When he comes out wide, he has no problems with his profile to set up the shot, but when he dribbles inwards, the shot stays on his left foot. Faced with the difficulties, Simeone has insisted that he finishes no matter what, even if he has to use his toe with his less good foot. All so that he can reach that ten goals that in his coach’s head could be a decisive contribution for Atlético to fight for the titles until the end.
