A wry smile on the Uruguayan marksman’s face was a clear indication that he was annoyed with his manager’s decision to take him off.
Diego Simeone played down Luis Suarez’s attitude while leaving the pitch on Wednesday night, saying it’s “normal” for the striker to show frustration after being replaced.
A minute before the hour-mark during the Champions League second-leg clash with Chelsea, Simeone decided to introduce Angel Correa and it was Suarez who was sacrificed.
The decision to sub off the team’s top scorer was quite surprising, and even more so considering that Atlei were 1-0 down and in desperate need of goals. Although, the striker had had a quite subpar performance, managing just one shot and taking only 19 touches.
The La Liga side went on to lost the match 2-0 and crash out of the Champions League after 3-0 aggregate defeat to Chelsea.
“It’s normal that [Suarez] got angry when he was taken off, players want to stay on,” said Simeone after the match, via AS. “We wanted a new way to attack them so we made changes.”
Simeone added: “We looked to change our system, tried to press them, but they were able to get through it, they were just better than us. You can’t say more than that. We need to improve.”
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