Borja Aranda urges patience with Julián Alvarez

Borja Aranda sees Simeone's backing of Julián as a calculated message to the player and calls for patience, recalling that there were calls to send Grimaldo back to Germany after just two weeks.

Borja Aranda agrees with Rubén Uría's theory and adds a nuance: "Keeping Julián on the pitch is also a private message to the player. Something like: 'I trust you completely, I'm leaving you on even when you're struggling because I know you can win me the game, now you have to earn it.'" That is why he approves of Simeone sticking with Julián Alvarez. In other words, the coach is trying to build Julián's confidence. It is an approach in which Simeone exposes himself. "I don't know of any coach who makes decisions against his own team."

For Borja Aranda, "Simeone is exposing himself as a coach; nobody makes decisions thinking they will go wrong. Perhaps the immediate impact isn't good, but in the medium and long term it could produce an excellent result. He'll be right or he'll be wrong, but we'll judge it in June," Borja adds. "He's a top player and Simeone is putting all his eggs in that basket. 'But it's been two months' – well, we're in November. Very often, putting a stopwatch on a player isn't a good thing. You need a certain composure and calm," Aranda adds.

Aranda also asks people "not to keep a stopwatch running: Julián didn't do a pre-season and only really started competing at almost October. If we were in a hurry, he says, we'd have sold Baena this year and sent Grimaldo back to Germany in his first two weeks. We all have our favourites and our pet hates, he concludes, but you have to judge at the end of the season."