Eliminated last Wednesday from the Champions League in a resounding way, winner only two of his last eight official matches, the Atlético de Madrid returns to the League as the leader of the table, but with five concerns that warn him for next Sunday's duel against him Alaves:
1 – 15 GOALS AGAINST IN THEIR LAST 13 GAMES:
At the beginning of the season an unapproachable wall in the League, unbeaten in eight of its first ten games of the championship, and throughout the era Simeone An example of how to defend their goal, Atlético is a vulnerable team today, with fifteen goals against in their last 13 official matches, of which they only kept a clean sheet on two occasions. And he received his rival's goal first in eight of those games, although he only lost in three.
Chelsea's 0-1 counterattack last Wednesday portrays what Atlético's defensive moment is like, in which nothing else Stefan
Savic it rises to its highest level. Maybe also Beautiful mario. They are not Jose Maria Gimenez, with the importance it has for Atlético, nor Felipe Monteiro. Neither Kieran trippier neither Renan lodi, although in the case of the Brazilian it is more a resource than a holder at present.
In this scenario, the Alavés party, with Diego Simeone with all his defenses available to arm the system and the starting eleven in terms of names and positions – predictably he will recover the back of five and can give rest to Savic start-, it is an undoubted test for the defensive system, more in doubt than ever in this exercise. Since 2-0 with Real Madrid, he has conceded 16 goals in 17 games. Before, he had conceded two in nine games.
2 – LUIS SUÁREZ, 2 GOALS IN THE LAST 9 DUELS:
Atlético de Madrid's dependence on Luis Suarez In his leadership of LaLiga Santander, he is visible, essential promoter of 27 of the 63 points of the rojiblanco team only with his decisive goals. Their numbers have declined in the last nine games between the League (7) and the Champions League (2), with only two targets.
With a wry smile when he was replaced by Diego Simeone At Stamford Bridge, with half an hour to go and with a 1-0 deficit, Atlético need him to maintain their lead and be champion. This Sunday, against Alavés, he will again be the offensive reference of the eleven, accompanied by strap, which will replace the loss of Joao Felix.
Luis Suarez He has scored 18 goals in this League – 36 percent of his team's goals in this entire League (50) are his. Atlético's need for him has become more evident in recent times: in seven of Atlético's last eleven victories in this tournament, his goals were essential.
3 – PRESSURE AND OFFENSIVE CREATION:
Atlético no longer overflows or plays or circulates the ball or maintains possession with the determination that it did in the first months of the course, with the impact that this has on its less constant and less conclusive attacks. Against Getafe he had chances, but when his opponent was left with ten; with Athletic or Villarreal they were counted, but the offensive punch saved him; and against Chelsea he hardly bothered Edouard mendy.
The pressure of the English team devoured him. It has Simeone the task of arming his team with the mechanisms or the footballers that best adapt to that skill of the rival, because that is when Atlético suffers the most. It happened to him with the ‘blue’ team, but also against Real Madrid in Valdebebas or recently against Athletic Club.
At the same time, the pressure of Atlético in the opposite field, when it is proposed, which is also when it performs better for the attack or the counterattack, the higher it steals the ball, it does not offer the results that it did before. London was an example of a repetitive situation in several of its last commitments, meanwhile change of system can lead to indefiniteness.
4 – A WIN IN HIS LAST FOUR CRASHES IN THE METROPOLITAN
Awaiting this Sunday of Alaves, Atlético's bump also stands out in their stadium. Seven of the last 12 points played have escaped from the Metropolitan Wanda. He only kept five; three for the 2-1 victory over him Athletic club and two for rival draws at the last minute of both Real Madrid (1-1) and Celtic (2-2), when the victory already seemed his.
Such a series is not unusual either – a triumph in his last four duels in that scenario – and there is no comparison with his ten previous home games in this LaLiga Santander exercise, of which he won nine and only failed to beat one, with a 0-0 against Villarreal. Of those crashes, six finished unbeaten.
Until defeat with him I raised 0-2, although perhaps he did not deserve to lose that day due to occasions and ambition, he accumulated 27 official matches without losing in his stadium, since December 1, 2019, when he fell against Barcelona. In that series he had added 20 victories, seven draws, 48 goals for and fourteen against. In the following and most recent four: one win, two tied, one loss, five goals in favor and four goals against.
5 – APERCIBIDOS SUÁREZ, LLORENTE, CARRASCO, HERMOSO, GIMÉNEZ …
Although he is in his first stretch of the entire season with no one off due to injury, now the yellow cards are emerging to put Atlético on alert for sanctions. For now, this Sunday he loses Joao Felix in front of Alaves for a cycle of five reprimands, after his protest sanctioned with a card in Getafe.
And the outlook is unsettling for the short-term future. There are six footballers warned of sanction: the centrals Mario Hermoso and José María Giménez; midfielders Marcos Llorente and Geoffrey Kondogbia; the extreme Yannick Carrasco; and the scorer Luis Suárez. Except for the media signed to Valencia, the rest are part of the eleven type that has been used Diego Simeone throughout this season.
Apart from those six warned footballers, whom a yellow card this Sunday would separate from the next visit to the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium in Seville -the game after Alavés and the national team break-, he has two other players (Koke Resurrection Y Angel Correa) to two cards of the cycle of five.