Atlético Madrid have had an excellent 2023 so far. After a disappointing start to the 22/23 season, Diego Simeone’s men gathered some form towards the end of 2022 and started this year strongly to finish the season in third place.

One of the players who was involved regularly during this run was Pablo Barrios. Barrios was promoted from the Atlético Madrid B team in 2022 and has since been a regular part of the senior setup. Barrios predominantly plays as an attacking 8 and can play both on the right and left sides.

The below visualisation shows where the midfielder ranked for some key metrics during last season compared to other players playing in a similar position, even if he had only played for a limited time.

Barrios’ most significant strength is his ability on the ball. He adds a different dimension to his team when in possession by regularly showing to receive passes and progress the ball forward at ease. He is also press resistant, which means he plays a vital role while building the play from the first phase.

Defensively, he needs to improve a lot if he wants to become a regular in Simeone’s team, given that Simeone requires his players to work very hard out of possession. He has the physical attributes to shine defensively, but not quite the technical ones yet.

Having signed for Atlético Madrid from rivals Real Madrid in 2017, Barrios has finally risen to the senior team and could really become an essential part of this setup this year. He once again came off the bench for Atlético Madrid’s both the games so far this season and is expected to add more minutes under his belt this season.