Atlético need to update the version of Simeone’s match by match. The rojiblanco team has to apply the famous slogan of the rojiblanco coach for 2022 and, above all, for his future in LaLiga. The rojiblancos are out of the Champions League positions and that does hurt an entity that has forged its current status by playing the Champions League every year. A reaction is urgently needed, otherwise Atlético will have a hard time.
Simeone has gone on vacation in pain. It is a new situation, to which he is not used. Ten years go a long way, even losing four league games in a row. But there is time to react. There are twenty days left, 60 points at stake, and there is a squad to be among the top four. The coach is turning everything around: the game system, the footballers who are playing more and those who have fewer minutes …
The sports management does not want to turn his head thinking about the rivals for the Champions League. At Atlético they know that Real Madrid and Seville will occupy two of those positions. There are two others left and now there are Betis and Rayo Vallecano. But Real Sociedad and Barcelona will also fight for them. For two places there will be four teams, discounting Rayo, the great surprise of the championship, and Atlético’s next rival. For Iraola’s team to endure up there would be something of a miracle, but not so Betis, Real and Barcelona.
Cholo spoke with his players before the match against Granada. And he will do it again after the holidays. The coach has this week to think about whether he makes any important changes to the team or if he continues more or less as he has been up to now. But you have to take a turn or try something different.
The situation is much better than two seasons ago, when the competition was stopped due to the pandemic. So Atlético had to react, they did, and got into the Champions League. He won seven of the eleven games that remained for the conclusion of the championship, lost none and got into the top four (finished third). Now there are more games ahead, but the idea is that the players understand that they have to react now. Otherwise, the objective will be complicated. And the first challenge is to recover game by game. The importance of living the next meeting as if it were the last.