With Leicester City’s Robert Huth and Wes Morgan showing no evidence of being able to thwart Jorge Sampaoli’s organised disorder and press at Sevilla, and Arsenal being battered in Bavaria by Bayern Munich, it’s not amiss to say England’s hopes of Champions League glory rests solely with Manchester City.
In Tuesday’s first last-16 meeting with AS Monaco, City will encounter a club with some parallels but, through two-and-a-half seasons of Leonardo Jardim’s management, one with a more distinct identity to its football. Monaco has every chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Born in Barcelona, Venezuela – 4,500 miles from Pep Guardiola’s old backyard of the same name in Spain – Jardim spent his earlier years in footballing obscurity. Unable to forge a playing career in the professional game, he used it to his advantage by getting his first coaching gig at the obscure A.D. Camacha aged just 27. Two years later, he was manager and continued to enhance his reputation at other Portuguese clubs, the country where his family had relocated when he was young.
Jardim’s early spells in the technical area saw him get the best out of small sides with meagre resources, but it was his consolidation of Braga’s new-found strength, and then short-term stints with Olympiacos and Sporting Lisbon, that encouraged Monaco to take a punt on him. And it was a gamble – Jardim had shown to not bend in his philosophy, something that had resulted in fractious relationships with a few boardrooms.
He turned up on the French Riviera to encounter an outfit which – like Manchester City – had changed its focus from buying success to cultivating it.
When Monaco returned to Ligue 1 in 2013, Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire that acquired the club in December 2011, splashed the cash, most notably on James Rodriguez, Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho, and Geoffrey Kondogbia. It was a statement – Monaco was back with a bang – but Claudio Ranieri was unable to hone the Gallic-dwelling Galaticos into a winning outfit, prompting a change of tact.
Months before Manchester City opened its £200-million Etihad Campus home with the aim of having a fully homegrown team by 2027, Monaco’s youth project was underway amid Jardim’s 2014 appointment. Money continues to be put into the academy system, scouting opportunities and first-team minutes for its youth products are being explored abroad, and some of the finest Europe-based youngsters available – Tiemoue Bakayoko, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar, and Benjamin Mendy – have been acquired in recent seasons.
Some envious eyes will be cast at Monaco’s suited throng when they arrive for Tuesday’s match in Manchester. City is rumoured to be interested in Fabinho and Mendy, but the Stade Louis II hierarchy is likely to demand an exorbitant fee for the pair. Bakayoko is heavily linked with a transfer to Manchester United and, heading up the exciting French contingent emerging in the first team, every leading European side wants Kylian Mbappe.
A generation built in Jardim’s image is entering fruition before Guardiola has been able to make a true imprint and, before the predatory glances from rivals can become tabled offers in the summer, there’s a sense that this is Monaco’s first chance to upset the elite on the continental stage. There’s room alongside Paris Saint-Germain in the French offensive.
Can Monaco be stopped?
While Guardiola toys with inverted wing-backs, Fernandinho playing in every position imaginable, and deploying a goalkeeper in Claudio Bravo who has feet for hands, Jardim’s ideas are already implemented via his sought-after group.
The back four is set in stone – Djibril Sidibe, Kamil Glik, Jemerson, Mendy – but the full-backs surge forward to join an attack which washes around the cornerstone of its attack, Radamel Falcao. The Colombian has shaken off the remnants of a serious cruciate ligament injury and dour spells at Manchester United and Chelsea to tally 20 goals in 26 competitive showings.
There are disturbing similarities between the Arsenal side that Monaco trumped two years ago to the Manchester City of today. Guardiola’s lot tends to start quickly, but is often wasteful in front of the net, and then loses intensity in the second stanza. If Les Monegasques rehash their approach to that first leg at the Emirates Stadium – staying compact in the first half, unleashing swathes of counter-attacks in the second half – they will win. Simple as that.
The Ligue 1 leader is more relentless nowadays as well. It had limped through the 2014-15 group stage with four goals in six matches, but since October 2016 has hit four goals in 11 different matches. Falcao, 31, is a serious upgrade on Dimitar Berbatov too, who was then aged 34.
(Photos courtesy: Reuters)
Guardiola has already been exploring various systems to stymie Monaco, it seems. Fernandinho cropped up at right- and left-back against Swansea City and Bournemouth, seemingly to bring more options to areas where City has floundered. Sergio Aguero’s 90 minutes at Huddersfield Town on Saturday – a full appearance partly enforced due to Aleksandar Kolarov’s 78th-minute withdrawal with a knock – may also suggest Kevin De Bruyne could operate as a false nine this Tuesday.
Aguero not fulfilling the industry Guardiola demands from his forwards has been a hot topic, and De Bruyne would be more natural at defending from the front. He could cut the supply lines to and from Bakayoko and Fabinho, in a similar vein to Edinson Cavani nullifying Sergio Busquets at the Parc des Princes last Tuesday.
In that setup, much of the penetration up top would be left to Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, two of his City’s standout players of late with the injured Gabriel Jesus.
Many NFL teams script their first 15 (or more) plays before a game starts to focus on getting a few fundamental concepts right. Whether they want to attack a particular defensive player or scheme, exploit a perceived weakness or simply drill down on the offensive elements they think are most critical to winning, they pay particularly close attention to the plays they’ll start with on Sunday as they wrap up the week.
Likewise, organizations need to pay attention to the first few critical things they do during the 2017 offseason, as those might end up defining the year to come. Some teams have a lot to do before the new league year begins March 9, while others won’t have to make critical calls until the first day of the NFL draft on April 27.
In this two-week series for ESPN, I’ll be running through the first five things that should be running through each team’s mind as it prepares for the 2017 offseason.
Let’s get to the NFC West, where we have a near-dynasty, a team that unexpectedly fell apart last season and two teams that overhauled their coaching staffs in a hope to return to relevance …
1. Pick up Deone Bucannon’s fifth-year option. The Cardinals were ahead of the curve in using a first-round pick on Bucannon, who is maybe the best example of the hybrid linebacker/safety combinations that continue to sprout around the league. Arizona will want to keep him around for the long term, but it’ll at least get Bucannon for another season in 2018.
2. Franchise Chandler Jones. The trade for Jones may not have put the Cardinals over the hump the way that they surely expected last offseason, but the former Patriots star delivered on his end of the bargain. Jones stayed healthy, making it through all 16 games for the second time in his career, while finishing with 11 sacks and 21 knockdowns. He also drew enough attention to make things easier for Markus Golden, who broke out with a 12.5-sack season across from Jones.
Arizona’s in a difficult financial spot because of the heavy investments made in Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald, who are due a combined $40 million on the cap in 2017. General manager Steve Keim was likely overaggressive in giving Palmer a one-year extension in August. Had the Cardinals not re-signed Palmer, they could have cut him this offseason and freed nearly $12 million in cap room. Instead, Palmer’s contract is stuck on the Arizona ledger, with his $24.1 million cap hit ranking as the third-highest in football behind Tony Romo (who won’t be playing under that cap hit) and Joe Flacco. Had Palmer retired, Arizona would have owed a staggering $28.8 million.
Pass-rusher Chandler Jones could be headed for one of the richest contracts for a defender in the league. Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
3. Create additional cap room. Keim probably needs to create extra space, given Step 4. The Cardinals have $35.5 million in room at the moment, but that will drop to $18.5 million if they franchise Jones. They’ll gain an additional $7.2 million if Daryl Washington remains ineligible, but Arizona might just want to move on from the long-suspended inside linebacker, a move which would instead create $4.7 million in cap room.
Besides Washington, the Cardinals will have to make some tough calls. With the news that Arizona intends to flip its tackles and move D.J. Humphries to the left side, Jared Veldheer’s $10 million cap hit looks untenable. Keim could create $6.8 million in space by releasing the former Raiders pickup. (Remember when the Raiders were a laughingstock by letting Veldheer and Lamarr Houston leave?)
Justin Bethel is a star special-teamer, but he has hardly been playable at cornerback. The player Bruce Arians called “a failure in progress” in December has a $5.3 million cap hit, with $3.8 million shaking free if he’s released. I suspect the Cardinals will keep him, in part because Bethel’s penciled in to start at cornerback in 2017, but they may force him to take a pay cut. In all, if Washington stays suspended and Keim cuts Veldheer and Bethel as suggested, the Cardinals would free up an additional $17.8 million.
4. Figure out who among the rest of the defensive pieces you want to retain. Including Jones, six of the seven Arizona players who led the defense in snaps last year are free agents. The only returning player from that group is Patrick Peterson. Inside linebacker Kevin Minter, safeties Tony Jefferson and D.J. Swearinger, cornerback Marcus Cooper, and two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell are unrestricted free agents this offseason. And that’s without including depth pieces like Frostee Rucker and Alex Okafor, who were starters in 2015 and will hit the market. (Rucker could retire.)
It’s difficult to imagine a win-now team like the Cardinals losing a superstar like Campbell, who is perennially one of the most underrated players in the league and hasn’t slipped much despite turning 30 this past season. Given that teams like the Buccaneers and Titans can and would likely offer Campbell in excess of $13 million per year without batting an eye, though, can the Cardinals really afford to re-sign him given their other needs? They might instead decide to let Campbell go, hope that Robert Nkemdiche shows more after a frustrating rookie season, and bring back younger talents like Minter and Jefferson with the money they’ve saved. Jefferson, who was tied for second in the league in tackles for loss, might be the best safety on the market if Eric Berry re-signs with the Chiefs.
There’s an alternate path that might be interesting. The Cardinals could choose to bring back Campbell via the franchise tag, re-sign Jefferson, Minter and Okafor, and take a swing at Swearinger or Cooper before targeting a released veteran or two in free agency. They could do all of that by letting Jones leave town. It would seem like a waste, but remember that the Cardinals are likely to recoup a high compensatory pick for doing so. If the Cardinals stay out of free agency, Arizona would pick up a third-rounder in the 2019 draft as compensation for losing Jones. In essence, given that they wanted to wash their hands of guard Jonathan Cooper (who subsequently failed to suit up for the Patriots), they would have dealt a second-round pick in the 2017 draft to New England for a year of Jones and a third-round pick in 2019.
Should the Patriots franchise Dont’a Hightower? How should the Vikings handle Adrian Peterson’s contract? Doling out advice on the league’s top upcoming roster decisions.
From Romo to Garoppolo, AD to JPP, Alshon to Dont’a, plenty of big-name players could be on the move this offseason. Where will they all end up? Our roundtable of experts makes predictions.
2 Related
Cardinals president Michael Bidwill has said the team intends to franchise Jones if it can’t come to terms with him on a long-term deal, but Bidwill might be saying that as a negotiation ploy. Given Golden’s breakout season, the Cardinals might just want to rely on the former Mizzou standout as their primary pass-rusher, bring back as much of the defense as possible, and let Jones leave after one season.
5. Find a receiving tight end. Arizona has basically gotten nothing out of the tight end position recently, with Troy Niklas struggling with injuries after being taken in the second round of the 2014 draft, while Darren Fells has been a replacement-level contributor. Starter Jermaine Gresham is a free agent this year, and the Cardinals will want to find a better option to work in the red zone. They probably won’t be able to afford Julius Thomas even if he’s released by the Jaguars, although a Thomas-for-Veldheer swap could make some sense. Keim might want to take a one-year flier on a player like Jacob Tamme or look for someone with soft hands in the draft.
1. Pick up Aaron Donald’s fifth-year option. Send the paperwork in twice, just in case.
2. Re-sign Trumaine Johnson. Los Angeles probably regrets letting go of Janoris Jenkins, who had an excellent season with the Giants. The Rams can’t afford to lose both Jenkins and Johnson, their other starting cornerback — but keeping him won’t be cheap. The Rams already franchised Johnson a year ago, so a second consecutive franchise tag would take Johnson to $16.5 million, which would make him the second-most expensive cornerback in the league behind Josh Norman.
The Rams won’t want to do that, and Johnson’s representation will know as much. Jenkins received $39.7 million over the first three seasons of his new deal from the Giants, and Johnson’s going to top that mark. New defensive coordinator Wade Phillips made his hay in Denver with a trio of great cornerbacks — Aqib Talib, Chris Harris Jr. and Bradley Roby — and while the Rams will try to develop Lamarcus Joyner and E.J. Gaines, neither has looked to be on Johnson’s level. Even if it means letting free-agent safety T.J. McDonald leave town, the Rams probably need to commit to Johnson.
3. Try to gather compensatory picks. Rams general manager Les Snead doesn’t have a lot of flexibility, given that his first- and third-round picks are on their way to Tennessee as part of the Jared Goff trade. The Rams weren’t contenders last year, but they need to resist the urge to go after veteran free agents in the hope of a quick fix. They’re going to need to rebuild around Goff with young talent.
To that end, the Rams probably need to avoid signing players who will infringe upon the formula for compensatory selections. They’ll also want to let a few of their veterans leave, which means McDonald and Kenny Britt could hit the market. Johnson would recoup the highest pick, likely a third-rounder, but McDonald and Britt should get the Rams started with extra selections in 2018.
Jared Goff was sacked 26 times in only seven starts last season. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo
The most notable failure on the line is 2014 second overall pick Greg Robinson, who has committed a league-high 35 penalties over the past three seasons and became a healthy scratch at points in 2016. New coach Sean McVay might move Robinson off Goff’s blindside, but that just leaves a crater at the line’s most important position with no obvious replacement or path to one.
Realistically, the Rams are going to have to use their second-round pick on a lineman or shop in the bargain bin for offensive linemen who were cut by other teams. They should seriously consider Branden Albert if the Dolphins part ways with their starting left tackle. Signing Albert, 32, doesn’t exactly fit with Los Angeles’ long-term timeline, but the Rams desperately need to create an infrastructure within which Goff can develop. They otherwise run the risk of turning Goff into the next Tim Couch or David Carr, quarterbacks who developed bad habits and lengthy injury histories while under fire at the beginning of their careers.
5. Be patient. Los Angeles is in a tough spot. It surely wants to develop a competitive team to attract fans in its new home, but the moves it has made haven’t panned out. Goff was a mess as a rookie. Todd Gurley was wildly disappointing during his second season. Tavon Austin’s contract is horrific, one of the worst in football given his production. The Rams are stuck in a division with a dominant Seahawks team and a Cardinals squad which should be better in 2017. They feel years away from the playoffs.
Whatever the Rams do this offseason probably isn’t going to make a huge difference, and that should be OK. Goff will be better as a sophomore. Gurley will break off more big runs in 2017. Austin might thrive in the Jamison Crowder role under McVay. They still have a great defensive line, and in Phillips, they have arguably the best defensive coordinator in the league. Los Angeles will probably be better in 2017. That should be enough for now.
1. Re-sign Eric Reid. One of the few promising young players on the San Francisco roster, Reid has been relatively effective as a pro while struggling with injuries. He has suffered multiple concussions and missed the final six games of the 2016 season with a torn biceps. Reid’s in the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, and the 49ers might have to pay a premium to keep him from testing the open market next season, but they will likely have in excess of $100 million in cap space with which to work. The 49ers might also try to bring back Jeremy Kerley, who was a useful slot receiver for $760,000 last season.
2. Resist the urge to do something dramatic at quarterbackwith the second overall pick. If Colin Kaepernick opts out as expected, the 49ers will literally have no quarterback on their roster. Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder and Thaddeus Lewis are unrestricted free agents, and they wouldn’t exactly inspire confidence if they were on the roster. Coach Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch have two paths to a new quarterback: the No. 2 pick or free agency.
It’s possible that the brain trust could fall in love with Mitch Trubisky or Deshaun Watson and decide to take one of them with the second overall pick. It would be aggressive given that the league-wide perception, at least at this point, seems to be that neither Trubisky nor Watson is that highly rated. Some have suggested that the 49ers send the pick to the Patriots to acquire Jimmy Garoppolo, which might be even more aggressive, given that the organization would then need to pay its new quarterback to keep him in town after the 2017 season. It’s also way out of line with what teams have paid for emerging backups like Garoppolo in the past.
Colin Kaepernick is 11-24 as a starter since the 2014 season began. Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
There are two things to keep in mind, however. One is the enormous opportunity cost of trading away the No. 2 pick for a quarterback. Not only would they be making their most important guess as an organization with the very first pick they have, but they’re incurring an enormous opportunity cost by not using that pick elsewhere. The 49ers have so many needs that the second overall pick could fill — most of the defenders likely to go in the top eight would make sense for a team that was 28th in defensive DVOA last season — that they basically have to be 100 percent sure about a quarterback to justify the selection.
And the other one is that this is a group of coaches and executives that will be learning on the fly. Which brings us to:
3. Actually, resist the urge to do something drastic in general. Shanahan has never been a head coach at any level. Lynch has never even held a personnel job, having transitioned immediately from his time as a player to an announcing career. Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has never been a coordinator at any level and didn’t even have his own positional room until 2014.
None of this is to say that the new guys are doomed to fail, and the 49ers can’t be much worse than the 2-14 mark they posted last season. It is fair to say, though, that there will be a learning curve. Everybody running this team will know a lot more about how to do their jobs in a year than they do right now. Given how late in the cycle they had to hire Shanahan, the 49ers might very well want to hire two different coordinators next year. Making bold decisions right now might seem foolish in 2018.
Patience is a dangerous virtue to espouse for a team on its fourth head coach in four years, but the 49ers gave Lynch and Shanahan six-year contracts under the idea that this rebuild is going to take a while. This team is almost definitely not one quarterback away from contention, unless Aaron Rodgers is suddenly on the market. (They should trade for Aaron Rodgers if he’s on the market.)
The other benefit to waiting on a long-term quarterback decision is that Shanahan’s oft-discussed affinity for Kirk Cousins could come in handy next year. If the rumors are true that Cousins is disgruntled in D.C., Washington will basically have to let him leave after the 2017 season. Cousins’ franchise tag of $23.9 million this season would be feasible, but there’s no way Washington can realistically pay their passer $34.4 million on a one-year deal for 2018. San Francisco could then sign Cousins without having to give up any draft picks. It’s also likely that the 2018 quarterback draft class will be better than this year’s bunch.
4. Pursue defensive help. The 49ers will want to target players who are going to hit their peak in two to three seasons, so their goal should be to look for young talents who can help one of the league’s worst defenses. This is a relatively deep class of defenders in free agency, so the 49ers should have a few options.
The 49ers desperately need a pass-rusher; Aaron Lynch went through a lost 2016 season, combining a four-game suspension with a high ankle sprain, and the only San Francisco defender who shone as a pass-rusher was rookie DeForest Buckner. San Francisco could take some risk on Nick Perry, who broke out last season, and the 49ers could be in line to go after Patriots rotation end Jabaal Sheard. Both Perry and Sheard are 26, which is the age range the Niners should be targeting.
Behind Perry and Sheard, the Niners need to spend on a cornerback after years of letting the position fester. The 25-year-old A.J. Bouye makes sense, and the 49ers could be the team that goes after Stephon Gilmore or Logan Ryan, both of whom are 26. The Niners aren’t going to fix their defense overnight, but making one or two additions this offseason is wise.
5. Re-sign Carlos Hyde. The 49ers probably don’t need to treat Hyde like a superstar back, but he has been useful enough amid some pretty middling offenses, and it would mean that at least some small number of fans in the stands at Levi’s won’t have to buy new jerseys over the next 18 months. Hyde’s an unrestricted free agent after the 2017 season, and his injury history suggests that the 49ers probably won’t have to pay him like a superstar to keep him in San Francisco.
1. Re-evaluate left tackle. And left guard. And right gua … You get the idea. I was tempted to just make each of the five items on this list a different offensive line spot, but that’s no fun. It’s safe to say that Pete Carroll, John Schneider, and Tom Cable need to re-evaluate their plans up front, given how bad the offensive line was in 2016. Sheil Kapadia wrote in January about Seattle’s offensive line philosophy, noting how the Seahawks want to draft and develop offensive linemen while trying to find buy-low opportunities from other teams.
That’s great in theory, but the Seahawks haven’t been able to pull it off. Their offensive line is a mess, and it’s time for them to shift — at least a little bit — in a different direction. It’s reasonable to give 2016 first-rounder Germain Ifedi more time to develop at guard, and Justin Britt has been decent at center when healthy, but it’s downright dangerous to go into 2017 with George Fant at left tackle.
There will be plenty of left tackle options available. Russell Okung, the team’s former starter on the blind side, will be a free agent if Denver declines his option. Branden Albert’s likely going to leave Miami. Kelvin Beachum was cut by the Jaguars. Andrew Whitworth’s a free agent and was still playing at a high level for the Bengals. Jason Peters could be available via trade from the Eagles. None of these players represent long-term answers at left tackle, but the Seahawks haven’t shown much aptitude for solving their O-line problems in recent years.
Jimmy Graham had 65 catches and six touchdowns in 2016. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
2. Leave the Jimmy Graham contract alone. Somehow, all options are on the table for the Seahawks and their tight end, who delivered a surprisingly effective 2016 season after rupturing his patellar tendon in 2015. As Graham enters the final year of the four-year, $40 million deal he signed with the Saints before the 2014 campaign, the Seahawks could conceivably decide to keep Graham around by signing him to an extension. They also could feasibly cut Graham to free up cap space in the hopes of addressing another position. Not that any positions come to mind.
The best option seems to be keeping Graham on his current deal for another year. His $10 million cap hit is tenable given Seattle’s current cap situation, and as Graham hits the wrong side of 30, the Seahawks might be better off drafting a tight end to team with Graham this year before taking over for the four-time Pro Bowler next season. The Seahawks can also franchise Graham in 2018 if he has a stellar season.
3. Add depth at defensive tackle. Otherwise, truthfully, the Seahawks don’t really have much to write about. They’re going to continue to do what they do with their core of talent, and while they’ve made surprising trades in the past, there’s no obvious weakness on the roster requiring attention. They perennially cycle through veterans at defensive tackle, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them target a couple of veterans to play behind Jarran Reed and Ahtyba Rubin. They’re already planning to meet with former Dolphins tackle Earl Mitchell, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them give Jags free agent Tyson Alualu a look.
5. Target Adrian Peterson or Jamaal Charles in free agency if their market crashes. Thomas Rawls was effective as a rookie, but he struggled mightily last season and has missed chunks of each of his first two pro seasons with injuries. There’s still plenty of promise, but Rawls might end up as a better fit in a situational role.
The Seahawks have a pair of interesting backups in C.J. Prosise and Alex Collins, but Prosise profiles more as a receiving back, at least thus far in his career. I don’t think anybody would have done well behind the Seahawks’ awful 2016 offensive line, but if Peterson or Charles (both of whom presumably will be cut) want to try to rebuild their value on a one-year deal, Seattle would be a fascinating place for one of them.
Leverkusen – Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez has hit goal-scoring form again for Bayer Leverkusen in a warning to Atletico Madrid ahead of its Champions League clash on Tuesday.
Five goals in three games ended a 16 match scoring drought for the Mexican and took him back into the top five scorers in the German championship with 10 goals.
After reports that Leverkusen wanted to sell the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star in January, Chicharito is now being hailed again for his role in victories over Augsburg on Friday and Eintracht Frankfurt a week earlier.
But Bayer, third last year when Chicharito got 17 goals and was fourth in the Bundesliga scoring charts, are still back in eighth place, a long way off the four German spots for next year’s Champions League.
And Leverkusen will still be outsiders against Atletico with Antoine Griezmann spearheading its attack.
The Germans will be without suspended Hakan Calhanoglu and key winger Karim Bellarabi said Bayer must step up to the plate to break its Champions League last 16 curse.
The Round of 16 has been the source of misery for Bayer over the last 15 years since Leverkusen reached the 2002 Champions League final.
Atletico beat Bayer in a penalty shootout in this round in 2015 following heavy defeats to Paris Saint-Germain in 2014 and Barcelona in 2012 over the two legs at the same stage.
‘Hard game’
Bellarabi is returning to form after missing the first half of the season with a leg injury and is relishing another crack at Atletico after its 3-2 defeat on penalties, to break the 1-1 aggregate score, two years ago.
“We are full of confidence now and want to really put our foot on the gas,” said Bellarabi.
“We’re looking forward to it and will have to concentrate 100 percent on Atletico, because it will be another hard game on Tuesday.
Diego Simeone’s Madrid received a massive boost before the flight to Germany as goalkeeper Jan Oblak was included in the squad.
The Slovenian international, who kept eight clean sheets in 13 Champions League games when Atletico reached last season’s final, has been sidelined since since surgery on a dislocated shoulder in December.
Oblak’s return is a timely boost with Atletico’s defence depleted by injuries to centre-back Diego Godin and right-back Juanfran.
Lucas Hernandez has deputised for Godin in Atletico’s last two outings, but is due in court on Tuesday.
The French youth international faces domestic violence charges after both he and his girlfriend were arrested over an altercation earlier this month.
On Friday, Simeone said Hernandez could be free to face Leverkusen, if the club fly him to Germany in time for kick-off.
Kevin Gameiro made his case to start up front alongside Griezmann, in place of Fernando Torres, after coming off the bench to score a five-minute hat-trick in Saturday’s 4-1 win against Sporting Gijon.
That display ended a four-month La Liga scoring drought for Gameiro.
The Miami Dolphins agreed to a trade Monday to acquire Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas for a 2017 seventh-round draft pick, a source told ESPN’s Adam Caplan, confirming multiple reports.
In a separate deal, the Jaguars acquired Dolphins left tackle Branden Albert for a 2018 seventh-round pick, league sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
If both players pass physicals and neither team reconsiders, the deals will be officially announced on or shortly after March 9 at 4 p.m. ET, the start of the new NFL year.
Thomas also will restructure his contract upon completion of the trade. He is expected to be in Miami on Tuesday to meet with the Dolphins.
Team
TE Yards
Jets
173
Dolphins
551
Raiders
580
Rams
584
— ESPN Stats & Information
Both teams were in heavy trade talks throughout the past week. The initial scenario, according to sources, was to swap Albert for Thomas. Albert was in Jacksonville on Monday to take a physical and will meet with the Jaguars sometime this week.
With the acquisition of Thomas, Miami has filled a major need at tight end. Former starters Jordan Cameron and Dion Sims suffered through injuries and inconsistency, and both will be unrestricted free agents in March.
Albert, 32, is a quality left tackle when healthy, but he has missed 13 games the past three seasons due to various injuries.
The Jaguars didn’t get what they’d hoped out of Thomas when they signed him to a five-year contract worth $46 million with $24 million guaranteed in March 2015. He made little impact in 2016, and the Jaguars got as much out of second-year players Neal Sterling and Ben Koyack (29 catches for 271 yards combined), which made him and his $7 million salary expendable in 2017.
Thomas’ struggles were partly due to injury but also because of erratic quarterback play by Blake Bortles. Thomas had 76 catches for 736 yards and nine touchdowns in two seasons, which is less than 10 yards per catch. He averaged 11.8 yards per catch and had 24 touchdown catches in his final two seasons in Denver.
Thomas missed a total of 11 games in two seasons with the Jaguars. He missed the first four games last season because of a fractured bone in his hand, and it took a while for him to get involved in the offense when he did return. He finished with 46 catches — the second-highest total of his career — but his yardage was way down (455 yards, the lowest of his career in which he played more than five games) and so were his touchdowns (five).
Thomas caught nine passes for 135 yards and a touchdown in the first two games of the 2016 season but caught more than three passes in a game just once after that and didn’t have more than 28 yards receiving in any game. Thomas played in only nine games in 2016 and finished with 30 catches for 281 yards and four touchdowns. He missed Week 4 with an elbow injury and went on injured reserve after hurting his back against Detroit on Nov. 20.
ESPN’s Mike DiRocco, Adam Schefter and Adam Caplan contributed to this report.
