The Girona center-back, who had been a starter in the previous seven games, was a substitute against Atlético de Madrid
Javi Hernández took his place in defense at the Metropolitan
Disgusted with the performance of the team against Real Sociedad (3-5), Míchel promised changes in the preview of the match against Atlético. The pools were open. Change of system, adjustments in the axis, a new drawing or even the goal were some of the bets of the rojiblancos fans. But at the moment of truth, the only striking change was the entry into the eleven of Javi Hernández by Juanpe in the central position.
The Madrilenian debuted as headline after four times, but the most impressive thing was seeing Juanpe start and finish the game on the bench without dragging discomfort. A very difficult image to find since he arrived in Montilivi in the summer of 2016. In fact, his last non-compulsory substitution was on matchday 27 of the 20-21 seasonin Fuenlabrada.
Since then, whenever it has been available, Juanpe had not stopped participating in any League matcheither as a starter or, on rare occasions, entering as a substitute.
The defensive fragility of the team evidenced against Real forced to move tab and the canary was sacrificed for Javi Hernández to enter eleven. Against the Royal Juanpe was very soft in general and saw Sorloth beat him to the punch a couple of times in actions that ended in goals. Also, against Celta, Carles Pérez won the position very easily in the play prior to Iago Aspas’ goal.
Will it be the substitution only a notice from Michel Or has Juanpe already lost the status of undisputed starter?