Simeone backs Costa to end nine-month goal drought

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has backed forward Diego Costa to end his La Liga scoring drought soon.

Costa last scored in La Liga on February 25, 2018 after he opened the scoring in a 5-2 win over Sevilla 30 minutes into the match.

Since then, the Spaniard has managed just four goals for Altetico, all of which have come in European competitions – two in the Europa League, one in the Super Cup and one in the Champions League.

But manager Simeone has retained his faith in Costa, feeling the striker is not too far away from breaking his duck.

“Costa’s working hard to get back among the goals,” Simeone said after Atletico’s 2-0 win against Real Sociedad (via Football Espana).

“He’s extraordinary and a very important player for us.

“If he plays like did today, he’ll be very close to scoring. This is the way forward for him, there’s no other.”

Saturday’s game against Real Sociedad brought the 17th consecutive occasion in which Costa has failed to scored – 15 of which were starts. In that time, however, the Spaniard has recorded three league assists.

Diego Costa’s misfortune in front of goal this season

Playing eight games in La Liga so far, Costa has completed the full 90 minutes on six occasions but is still without a goal.

And it has, largely, come down to the Spaniard not getting many shooting opportunities with just nine attempts on goal so far – an average of 1.2 per 90 minutes – all of which have come inside the area.

This is slightly lower than he managed last season, in which he averaged 2.1 shots per 90, after officially joining from Chelsea in January, though he did manage three goals.

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