Between the incidence of Covid-19, with the positives of Joao Félix, Antoine Griezmann, Koke Resurrección, Héctor Herrera and his own Diego Simeone, isolated in their homes, the Argentine coach and his coaching staff resume the search for solutions for their team, in an anomalous situation compared to their entire era, the front of the bench of the Atlético de Madrid, oblivious to the fight for League, in the worst first round since his arrival and focused on recovering the figure of a team that has chained four defeats, he insists on finding his best level and must rebuild his identity, with the Lightning already in sight.
It is not a sports situation like ten years ago, when on December 29, 2011 he directed his first training session for the Madrid team in the now defunct Vicente Calderón. Perhaps it is more similar to the moment the team suffered in the 2019-20 academic year, before the competitive break for the Covid-19, when he was sixth in the rankings. But the need now also urges the current rojiblanco team at this stage of the season, aware that the League It is impossible – they are 17 points behind with the leadership of the Real Madrid- and that the classification for the Champion Leagues is inescapable.
“You have to clean your mind, be calm and seek to correct situations,” he recited after 2-1 in Granada, in the last game of the year. “And calmly, in the search, go slowly rearming this, which has many good things,” he added.
It is his worst first round. In the absence of a game to close it, this Sunday against the Vallecano Ray in the stadium Wanda Metropolitano, is an irremediable reality. Not even in 2019-20 or 2016-17, when he suffered as many doubts as now, did he reach the middle of the championship with as little productivity as now. Then, he added 35 points – his worst record until this season – now he accumulates 29, which will be 32 if he wins this Sunday.
It is his lowest score in the first 18 days -and it will be in the 19-, but also his highest record of defeats: five in 18 games, when the broadest scale in that sense is the four he suffered so much in 2016- 17 as in 2014-15. If you don’t fix it, it will also be your lowest win record. He has achieved eight in 18 days. If he wins at Rayo, it will be nine in 19, the same as the worst reference in that sense: 9 in 2019-20.
Likewise, he had never conceded as many goals as now in a first round, with the 22 he has suffered so far – eight of them in the last eleven shots or in the four most recent days. Neither in 2020-21 (9) nor in 2019-20 (12) nor in 2019-19 (13) nor in 2017-18 (8) nor in 2016-17 (16) nor in 2015-16 (8) nor in 2014-15 (18) nor in 2013-14 (11) nor in 2012-13 (18). It is also their worst goal difference: +7. It worsens to +10 of 2019-20.
Atlético de Madrid is going through a difficult time
THE PRESSURE OF 2019-20
“He is not wanting to go in,” Simeone also said of the team’s offensive data, who has only scored three goals in the last 53 shots he has proposed in the current sequence of four losses in the League. Compared to other first laps, it is far from the best (47 in 2013-14, 40 in 2012-13, 37 in 2014-15 and 36 in 2020-21) and above the worst: 22 in 2019-20, 27 in 2018-19 and 2015-16 or 28 in 2017-18, although the difference with all of them is that he received, at least, eight fewer goals.
The 2019-20 academic year, when Atlético quickly distanced itself from the possibility of competing for the title and began to face the reality of reaching one of the first four places in the classification (it was achieved after the break by Covid -19), is also the closest reference to the moment that the rojiblanco team lives, that does not win even when it makes merits, that bleeds in its defense and that neither manages to correct it in attack, because its effectiveness does not reach previous seasons either.
So, Simeone’s solution was conclusive. In the time that the pandemic hiatus lasted -from March to May-, he worked the errors with his players, individually and collectively, from a distance, through video, to solve the defects with a view to restarting the competition. He went to the interruption of the championship in sixth place, after a 2-2 at home with Sevilla, with 45 points out of 81 possible, and finished the League third, also with a distance of ten points over fifth in the standings, because in the eleven days of the restart he made 25 of the 33 points for which he competed.
There was a key factor above all to understand the reaction of the team: the pressure in the opposite field. It was the main hallmark that he relaunched for his team compared to the previous stretch of 27 games. The recovery of possession and the increase in the volume of play on rival terrain, more or less what he proposed in many sections in Granada, they reestablished the team figure and replaced it in the zone ‘Champions‘.
On other occasions, in moments of crisis, Simeone also opted for the defensive origin. That formula does not seem now, in a team that is discovered vulnerable, but with some characteristics of players that invite the coach to an offensive proposal, either within the 4-4-2 or the 5-3-2 with which he has oscillated this season, without consolidating the three-center structure as much as it did last season.
In fact, this Sunday points to 4-4-2. He has already defined the eleven, judging by the tests of this Friday’s training. Without Boil, Joao, Griezmann Y Herrera, for Covid-19, and without Marcos Llorente placeholder image ni Stefan Savic, injured, the likely lineup consists of Jan Oblak; Kieran Trippier, José María Giménez, Mario Hermoso, Renan Lodi; Yannick Carrasco, Rodrigo de Paul, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Thomas Lemar; Angel Correa Y Luis Suarez.
Atlético de Madrid training at the Cerro del Espino Sports City in Majadahonda. 2021/2022 season. Stefan Savic.
THE “NEED” OF SAVIC AND GIMÉNEZ
The new year, at the same time, will recover for Simeone Essential figures in his scheme in recent times, especially in the center of defense. The Argentine coach has lost in all this last month -in the course of the four defeats- his two center-backs most starters of all (either complemented by another center-back in a 5-3-2 or with both in the middle in a 4 -4-2): Stefan Savic Y Jose Maria Gimenez, you lose the last four and five games, respectively, due to muscle injuries. The Uruguayan is already returning to Rayo.
“(…) Wait for the centrals that we are lacking at the moment and with great need to recover,” he quoted a week ago after the 2-1 in Granada, when he responded about the current crisis of results of his team, focusing on a position in which neither Felipe Monteiro ni Mario Hermoso ni Geoffrey kondogbia -the emergency solution to such absences- have been conclusive solutions. Nor has it been the best course of Savic, imposing in Atlético champion in 2020-21, nor Gimenez, now stopped by injuries and recovered in time from the Ray of the contracture he suffered a month ago in Cádiz.
In a week or two you will also have Antoine Griezmann, a vital man for Simeone, who, when he was injured on December 12 in the first half of the match against Real Madrid in the stadium Santiago Bernabeu, was the most productive of all in attack.
With him, with the current game moment of Joao Felix -interrupted now by Covid-19- and with the undoubted dependence that scorer has on Luis Suarez, whose worst run as a rojiblanco coincides with the worst results of the team, it will be necessary to see if Simeone it is decided again to align the three together as starters when they are available, because the French and the Portuguese are low against him Lightning.
The last time he did it was eleven games ago, in two consecutive 2-2 against Real Sociedad and Levante. Then, between injuries in six games and between the choice for another configuration in the lineup, in another five games, he has not returned with all three in any official commitment.
Marcos Llorente had to retire injured at Sánchez Pizjuán’s Sevilla-Atlético de Madrid.
THE LONGING FOR LLORENTE
He is also in recovery Marcos Llorente, out due to a muscle injury suffered against the Sevilla, on December 18. It will also not be available in front of the Lightning, although he already exercises on the field of play outside the group.
Pending whether or not something happens with Kieran Trippier in the winter market, in the interest of Newcastle in his signing, the return of Llorente presumably it will be to enter in the center of the field, not in the side or the right lane, to which the English international has already returned, with all that that implies for Atlético’s potential from midfield forward, where the Madrid midfielder is moves with more ease.
Because the Athletic this course also suffers the low production of Llorente in tangible offensive data such as goals and assists. He has yet to score in his 18 games this season, when last season he had thirteen goals and twelve more. Sime Vrsaljko, reactivated for the cause against the Porto, it also hastens your set-up. At the same time, there are three warned in League: Luis Suárez, Giménez Y Felipe Monteiro.
“With tranquility and balance we will move forward,” he proclaimed. Simeone. Meanwhile, the League no longer seems possible; the classification for Champions League it becomes a priority due to the complexity with which it is perceived right now; the Copa del Rey is approaching, with the duel on January 6 against the Rayo Majadahonda, and the Spain Supercup in Saudi Arabia.
Before you need to rediscover yourself. Because there are four consecutive defeats in LaLiga for the first time in the whole era Simeone. Not even in 2011-12, when he refloated a team that had been shipwrecked in the first months of the season, did he go through such a damaging streak that it began with an unforeseen defeat by 1-2 against him. Mallorca at Wanda Metropolitano, continued with a 2-0 derby against him Real Madrid and a 2-1 in the sight to the Sevilla at Sánchez Pizjuán and it was completed eight days ago in Granada, when he lost a game that he never deserved to lose. It is the reality with which 2021 has ended. Now 2022 begins. Sunday awaits the Lightning.
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