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This upcoming season doesn't feel like an iteration of Atleti, but an entirely new sequence. Atleti can still win matches 1-0, but they can also score four goals if necessary.
Gareth Bale exists in the two states: recovering from a calf injury and on the verge of a pulled hamstring. He's somehow been somehow invisible at the biggest club in the world, but that's changed with Ronaldo leaving for Italy.
We often ask athletes that they build their lives around the game they play, because we feel that if they're not doing everything in their power to play well, we're somehow being robbed of their potential. Ronaldo is one of the few players who clears that ridiculous bar and he still occasionally catches flak, because he's doing it for selfish reasons.
There are rare instances when a player develops an institutional bond with his club. Mauro Icardi appears to have one with Inter, having joined back in 2012 and stuck around through some lean years and now they're back on the upswing.
Thomas Partey, coming off a great season, has arrived in Atleti's midfield. Now he has to arrive again, repeatedly, in order to keep hold of what he's got.