In the absence of defense… heart

Simeone has always been pragmatic at a press conference. “What does it take to win at the Camp Nou? Score one more goal than Barcelona”. Something that can be extrapolated to the rest of the games. But nevertheless, The Argentine coach would never have imagined that it would be necessary to score so many goals to add three by three.

Atletico have scored 42 goals in the 23 league games he has played, almost two on average per game and only five less than last season at this point. But nevertheless, The mattress team has added 39 points when in the 2020-21 campaign it already had 58. And the big difference is in defensive performance. Against Getafe they started well and in the 30th minute they were already winning 2-0 and had scored a penalty. In any other campaign it was a close game for the mattresses. Three points and think about the next. But, just over ten minutes later, the scoreboard looked incredible 2-3 with two penalties and some errors behind that did not stop weighing down the team.

Correa, that beacon to cling to for many months now, made it 3-3 just before the break… until Felipe shot himself in the foot again. An incomprehensible entry to leave the team with one less with 30 minutes to play when the game was going along the paths planned by Simeone. However, in these last home games Atlético has clung more to the mystique of the Wanda Metropolitano and to the heart and claw than to the splendor of the team to achieve two fundamental wins in the fight for the Champions League.

Hermoso has been the protagonist in two victories with a comeback included and with a heart attack and delirium in the mattress feud. Against Getafe taking advantage of a set piece play with a spectacular earwig for a 4-3 that reminds us of times past, where the lack of defense was made up for with crazy games and a carat forward. But an unsuspected lack of control with Simeone and that the Argentine coach does not like at all. Against Valencia it had been turning around a 0-2 and with two goals in added time for the final 3-2. Atlético has won six of the last nine points, with a balance of nine goals for and another nine against (they lost 4-2 to Barça). Something perhaps more beautiful to see for a neutral spectator, but a drain on a team that has always been built from behind.

And they are games with many goals, but with very few occasions. If each rival’s shot is a goal, it’s because something is being done wrong and the inability to correct it is Atlético’s biggest problem this season. Against Getafe there was lime and sand, good news in the form of points, performance with one less, intensity, character and the individual level of players like Correa and Cunha. But he again showed defensive fragility and some errors at the back that cost goals and expulsions. Neither the comeback against Valencia nor the victory in Porto could have been a turning point for the team. Now, it is expected to get that mental click from the points harvested against Getafe when everything was against it. An Atlético with two faces and where the future of the season will determine which of them wins: the team with heart that when it attacks with everything provokes fear or the defensive flan that continues to concede goals at each arrival of the rival.