"Vermeeren has played little, like Guler at Madrid or Roque at Barcelona"

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone on Saturday hinted at the possibility of Arthur Vermeeren "getting more minutes ahead of what's to come" in the last two rounds of La Liga, while recalling that the Belgian midfielder "has played very little", like Arda Guler with Real Madrid and Vitor Roque with Barcelona.

"There are the expectations of being able to show that the player is a young boy, that he has an important future and that he has played very little, like Guler at Real Madrid or Vitor Roque at Barcelona. They are young players. And there are moments when they can be used and there are others when we have to wait for them to find that moment," he said.

"I hope that in these two remaining games, he can give the team what we believe he has and that he can get more minutes ahead of what is to come," continued Simeone, whose apparent doubt in the XI for Sunday's game against Osasuna is between Rodrigo Riquelme, on the left flank, or Arthur Vermeeren.

If one or the other plays, Samuel Lino's position will change, either on one side if Riquelme plays or on the other if Vermeeren plays. Meanwhile, the remaining nine names seem to have been settled: Jan Oblak, in goal; Marcos Llorente, at right-back; Stefan Savic, Gabriel Paulista and Mario Hermoso, in defence; Koke Resurreccion and Rodrigo de Paul, in midfield; and Angel Correa and Antoine Griezmann.

Vermeeren, 18, has so far only featured in three of the 22 games he has been available to Diego Simeone since his move from Antwerp in the winter transfer window. He has not played for the red-and-white side since 9 March, in the 2-0 defeat to Cadiz, when he came on for the final stages. Since then, he has not played in 11 games.