Atlético befriends the ball

Atlético has conquered the League and anyone who has followed his season closely knows that there has been an evolution regarding the method cholista traditional. Other times Simeone proposed to vary the plan, but did not specify. This time, possibly buoyed by victories, yes. The 4-4-2 stopped being non-negotiable, Cholo explored other schemes, empowered some footballers and the team strived to give steps forward to lift your scorer. And he has made very good friends with the ball, with whom he has had more affinity than ever.

Since Simeone has directed Atlético, this is the first season in which he averages more than 50% possession, specifically it is 52.02%, according to data from Opt. He has had more of the ball than his rivals, although he is not uncomfortable without the ball either. The games in which he had the least possession were in the Wanda Metropolitano against Sevilla (33.9%), a 2-0 in which he did not concede a chance to the rival, and against Real Sociedad (34.7%), where he got 2-0 fast and dominated, although he did end up going through some trouble.

There are other days, however, when he had more than two-thirds of the possession. In Mestalla, with 66.9%, scratched a 0-1; against Cádiz, with 67.5%He had one of the best afternoons of the season (4-0); against Osasuna, just days ago, he had 72.7%, was able to thrash and ended up achieving an agonizing comeback. And the meeting where he had the ball the most was that of the Coliseum, 72.9% that did not serve to break the tie to zero, although Atleti did generate chances.

This League has also been the one in which the team has given the most passes: 19,120. To compare, 3,000 more than in the previous one. There are several reasons for this evolution. The taste for touching the ball of all their midfielders, the relevance of Handsome, the improvement of Savic taking the ball, the nice touch from Trippier, João, Carrasco … The rojiblanco that has given the most passes is Koke, 2,413. Then Hermoso (1,771) and Savic (1,740). It is also the year with the best delivery success: 83.1% good passes. A year ago, it was 78.8%.

The competition itself has been giving and removing reasons and in the end Simeone decided to a typical midfield formed by Koke, Llorente and Lemar, without a pure defensive midfielder. HerreraDespite not being a regular starter, he helped with this plan and is the player who passes the most passes per minute (0.96). Kondogbia (0.65) and Torreira (0.62), the fourth and the fifth. It has been a learning process and constant touch-ups, but this season, looking at all the lines, it was noticed that it was a team more gamer, more ambitious and, ultimately, more champion.