Athletic, champion numbers

Atlético has the right to dream, although without going from game to game. The rojiblanco team is working in the league, with a change of style towards a more offensive football from the beginning of the course and a new formation with three centrals that has endowed the team with an increased back strength and freedom for its players in the midfield.

Against Valladolid, Simeone moved his team to give a break to several of the footballers most charged with minutes in attack. With a suffocating schedule, Cholo left starting on the bench to Llorente, João Félix and Koke, in addition to the casualties of Carrasco, Diego Costa and Lodi. If the initial plan did not work, the entry of the '14' in the halftime gave a new air to the team and lLemar's position as left winger showed the best version of French in a long time, which scored again more than a year and a half later. And that is one of the great virtues of this Atleti, that Cholo is managing to recover players who were secondary last season.

Beyond Llorente's explosion from Anfield, Lemar has been in the league for two consecutive days at a high level, Herrera has found himself in the double pivot and not to mention Beautiful as a third center, already untouchable. Now, the Cholo can give gallons to a very deep squad. From that point on, to open the scoring, everything was easier. Just in case, Llorente saw the door again to sentence the seventh consecutive victory in the competition and reach 26 points out of 30 possible in the League. According to the data provided by Mister Chip, the rojiblanco club solo I had reached that number of points by now twice before, the same 26 in the 1995-96 season and 27 in the 2013-14 season, in both with the same purpose, the achievement of the title.

The Athletic, which leads Real Sociedad by two points with a less disputed game, by six points to Real Madrid, next rival, with another party less and in 12 to Barcelona after his new puncture, It is clear that the options are not deviating from the path. Stay focused only on the next appointment and put all your energy into looking short-term. This is how the dream was fulfilled in 2014 and only then can we try to repeat it again. But what is undeniable is that, while the other Champions teams are suffering too much to combine the two competitions, Atlético is coming out strengthened in sensations and results.

After starting the championship at a brilliant level against Granada (6-1), came the only two punctures so far with two consecutive goalless draws against Huesca and Villarreal. The euphoria subsided and the closed defenses were once again jamming a team that still could not find themselves in the final meters. However, this new formation has allowed us to see the best version in attack of João Félix, Koke, Llorente, Carrasco, Correa … and the ability to generate chances much more easily (there are 21 goals scored). Something that seemed to affect the team behind, as it did in the Champions League, with that metaphor of the blanket that if you go up allows you to cover the head but uncover the feet.

Iron defense

Nothing could be further from reality, with an Atlético who has not conceded a goal in the last four games and has received only two goals in ten games, the second time in history after Deportivo in the 1993-94 season. If the offensive players have been reinforced, the same has happened with Savic, Giménez, Hermoso, Trippier and company. Oblak now has less work, without having to leave miracles with such continuity and the team does not wear out as much behind the ball.

It is still too early to speculate, but the numbers reinforce Atlético's candidacy in the League. Luis Suárez has returned to the team and now comes a key week to determine the rojiblancas options in the Champions League, where It is mandatory to score in Austria to be in the last 16. Later another fat game is faced, visiting Real Madrid against which the last defeat in the league was harvested. It was on February 1, with a team plagued by casualties, and since then 26 games have arrived in the competition without knowing what it is to lose. A state of form reinforced after the stoppage due to the coronavirus health crisis, where the best level of the rojiblanco game has arrived and for acclimatization of the players who carried out their transition year and they have managed to take the step forward, with João Félix at the head. Atleti lives excited, but without forgetting game by game.