Atlético is missing. The rojiblanco team again missed an advantage on the scoreboard in the last minutes and against Mallorca they added their fourth defeat in the last ten games, three of them at the Wanda Metropolitano. After the enormous illusion awakened in summer, with the signings of Griezmann, De Paul and Matheus Cunha to join a league champion team, The mattress team is playing in Porto their future in the Champions League, where only victory is worth to have options to be in the second round, and a good part of their chances in the league competition, visiting the Santiago Bernabéu with the risk of leaving to 13 points. With the preseason debate on whether it was the best squad in the club’s history, so far the performance and results are far from expectations. There are several reasons.
Lack of identity
It is difficult to define today what Atlético plays. The rojiblanco team has left reinforcing with players with an offensive profile, good ball touch and individual quality, with a squad whose compensation is being questioned by defensive problems, both in numbers and in individual performance. However, this evolution towards another type of game more of touch and possession that developed so well last season is not being able to complete this course. The rojiblanco team seeks on certain occasions take refuge in their virtues of the past, but which are no longer so today. It happened against Valencia and in the last two home games against Milan and Mallorca. With a beneficial result, Atlético backs down when they no longer have the ability to consistently defend themselves.
Now he suffers, he is weak from set pieces, he does not close the lateral centers well nor does he need to be generated many chances to conceal a goal, so It doesn’t seem like a good idea to try to protect yourself over Oblak’s goal. In attack there is no continuity in the game, so you can go from a second half as in Cádiz, combining with speed, breaking lines, generating chances and seeking to put pressure on the rival field to a match like that of Mallorca, leaden, without connection, shallow and with a sinking after Cunha’s goal in the 67th minute that seemed to end all evils. Simeone varies his systems, but does not find the key. And that lack of identity is a stone that must be remedied, something that had not happened with Cholo and that puzzles the fans.
A crystal defense
Atlético de Simeone had always been built from its defensive strength. A fierce team, intense in pressure and who had to sweat blood to score a goal. Also in the two league titles, with a team focused on attack, but never neglecting its defensive duties. However, this season it seems easier than ever to score Oblak. The Slovenian has conceded 16 goals in 15 league games when last season there were 25 and in the 2015-16 season there were 18 in 38 games! Currently each rival’s auction means danger. Although there is always merit from the finisher (Oblak would surely wish Athletic’s aim against Real Madrid or Gerard Moreno yesterday against Sevilla in his matches), but also with many errors behind.
Bad positioning, poor defense of the set pieces, errors in the lateral centers and even mistakes by the goalkeeper. Although the focus can be on a decrease in the level of the defenders, with injuries and individual performances well below the ceiling of each player, with the passage of the games it is necessary to think about a much deeper imbalance. Simeone has used the defense of five that worked so well last season, he has returned to four, a midfield with three, a double pivot, trident up, two forwards … but the structural problem remains. The team does not have a high pressure line and the defense suffers behind it.
The Wanda Metropolitano distributes points
Another of the hallmarks of Atleti del Cholo, the fort as a local, has gone down the drain. It has never been so easy to score in the Wanda Metropolitano. The rojiblanco team had always been fearsome before its people … and even without them, since it was the best local team in LaLiga during the entire pandemic. But this season the teams go to the colchonero fiefdom aware that they can catch points to the dismay of the rojiblancos fans.
Eight games played at home in LaLiga with a balance of four victories (Elche, Barcelona, Betis and Osasuna), three draws (Villarreal, Athletic and Real Sociedad) and the defeat against Mallorca that he had not won seven games and was able to turn a 1-0 around in the last stretch of the game. In Champions the problem worsens. For the first time since the coach’s arrival at Atlético, he has failed to win a home game in the group stage and has added a single point out of nine possible. To be in the round of 16, he will have to get his second victory away, where better results are arriving than in the Wanda Metropolitano.
Unsuccessful changes
Simeone is one of the coaches with the greatest ability to modify the progress of matches with his movements from the bench. And if he usually succeeds and improves the team with the changes, this course has happened on several occasions that the depth of the squad and the good level of the substitutes does not have the desired result when carrying out the modifications. Against Mallorca himself, Cholo replaced Cunha and Correa, the two generators of the goal, to give entry to Vrsaljko and Suárez in the 70th minute. The Croatian entered the side and advanced Llorente, but neither in his ascents nor in defense did he improve to the team. And the Uruguayan had to play with his back many meters from the goal, barely able to contribute while Mallorca turned the scoreboard.
Against Milan, The changes made Atlético lose strength in the center of the field and control of the game. The Italian team was climbing lines while the De Paul, Lemar, Hermoso, Griezmann and Suárez and ended up taking the victory in the last moments. Against Valencia, Atlético went 1-3 on the scoreboard and victory seemed certain. Correa, De Paul and Suárez left replaced, the last two in the 87th minute and the entry of Kondogbia, Herrera and João Félix coincided with the withdrawal of the team and two points in the discount to say goodbye to another two points.
Spine away from level
Atlético have been incorporating players, they have great figures in each line, but there are some essential players and this season they are far from the level of last year. Koke is the key piece to give rhythm, speed and play to the rojiblancos attacks. But this course is having a hard time getting the peak of form, have continuity in the games, break lines and appear in the danger zones. Cholo keeps him as an untouchable and complete game after game, but he is not the usual Koke. Suárez is still the top scorer, however, he does not have the ability to generate his chances and convert them like last season and the team is forcing him to live far away from the area, where it is already more difficult for him after losing speed.
Giménez and Savic are accusing the injuries, Llorente does not have that determination near the rival area and now he is having to play winger out of place and losing his best qualities and Oblak does not convey security and has made mistakes. Although other team members like Lemar and Carrasco are showing a very high level, the general trend is that the figures do not have a good time individually. If the group is bad, all its players suffer (Felipe, Hermoso, Kondogbia, Lodi…).
There is still time
Right now everything looks very dark, with many doubts and some bad weeks for the athletic team. But the best news is that there is still time to reverse the situation. “This game either depresses you or rebels you and I trust the squad we have and in us as a coaching staff ”, indicated Simeone after the defeat against Mallorca.
Atlético have to go to Porto with the victory between eyebrows and wanting to hit the table. The eighths are still possible and, if they are successful, there will be more than two months of margin to prepare for the tie. And in the League, although falling against Real Madrid on Sunday would complicate the championship a lot, a victory can put the championship red hot. There is a lot of competition left and if last season the League was sold from certain sectors as won in December and you had to sweat it, Now it seems lost, but there are still a lot of points to be played. No one doubts that this team and its coach are capable of anything and the dressing room has to go back to its origins: union, work, defense, game by game …