Without minutes in the first four matches of the season, when he watched his team win, from the bench, against Getafe (1-0), Leganes (0-1), Eibar (3-2) and the defeat against Real Sociedad (2-0), the footballer has been earning his place in Diego Simeone's squad game after game.
It has been a patient career. He didn't play until the fith game, against Juventus in the Champions League at the Wanda Metropolitano, when he scored the goal to make it 2-2 in the final minutes of the game, and he did not start until the sixth match, in the goalless draw against Celta at home. Both were his only two games of the Madrid team's first nine.
Later, this dynamic has changed. From the last eight games, he has played six, the four most recent he has played consecutively, and from two of these last four he has started. He hopes to do the same this Saturday in the return to the league competition against Granada at the Nuevo Los Cármenes stadium.
"Yes, it's my best moment at Atletico, because I have had more participation and more minutes. Obviously, when you don't play and you don't have action you do not know if you are in a good moment or a good physical state. In this moment I have had more minutes and more action with the team, so I can say that it is my best moment", he said in 'La Pregunta Mahou', which the club published on their website.
Herrera hopes to be of assistance to the younger footballers in the squad, due to the experience that he has. "I always to try to do my best in everything. If they come to me, I am 100% open to talk, to give them advice and I hope that they can learn important things from me," he said.
He is already looking at the next game against Granada, in which he will play two consecutive games as a starter for the first time this season. "The key to all triumphs and everything in a team is work. I think we have to work seriously and concentrate thinking about that game," he said.
"They are not easy opponents. Granada are a difficult team, that are strong at home and have got some good results," Herrera said, who focused on "going out with a winning mentality," as his team "always" does, and who insisted on going "match to match" to achieve the objectives of this campaign.