In Spanish football, there are traditionally two giants competing for the championship title – Barcelona and Real Madrid. But after Diego Simeone came to Atletico, the situation changed.
The team from Madrid has fully entered the top 3, managed to win several trophies, but in terms of capabilities it is still slightly inferior to the above-mentioned teams. Although it will not be possible to deny it attempts to adapt to the realities and change. The club is changing its approach – from associations with pragmatic play to a modern style.
Right now it is an active participant in the race for gold medals, so in this material we will try to find out what it does.
Easy calendar, as well as the decline of Barcelona with Real Madrid A very simple argument, but you can’t ignore it. Diego Simeone’s team had a fairly successful schedule, which allowed it to save energy and also gain points.
The level of the opponents in these matches was quite mediocre, which does not negate the spectacle of many results, where Atletico arranged real goal extravaganzas, but also does not allow us to talk too seriously about the stability of the team at the moment. Since October, the only really strong opponent can be called PSG in the Champions League, and in the championship there were mainly outright mediocre teams.
Barcelona and Real Madrid had slightly stronger opponents in La Liga at this stage. In addition, both Spanish top clubs have been far from ideal form this season. With the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, as well as other problems, Carlo Ancelotti’s team is giving up too many points. Hans-Dieter Flick’s wards started well, but now fatigue is showing in contrast to injuries. Therefore, Atletico, which is itself variable in terms of results, managed to make up a significant gap and catch up with the leaders in the table.
Griezmann’s brilliant form – he participates not only in attacks, but also performs a huge amount of work in different phases of the game We are already used to the excellent game of the 2018 world champion. He is definitely an Atletico legend who can perform at a high level for at least a few more years. The saga with his redemption from Barcelona ended 100% successfully. Griezmann has once again gained incredible form, which is noticeable not only this season. Last campaign he made 16+6 in La Liga alone, before that 15+17.
But right now, during the transformation of the “colchoneros”, his influence is most clearly visible. He is an absolute leader who traditionally performs not only the usual role in the form of effective actions, but also connects many processes in different phases. Although his goals and assists should not be ignored either.
He now has 11+6 in all competitions, so if he continues at the same pace, he may well try to break his personal record of 44 goal actions, which were in the 2017/18 season. It is still far from that, but a certain successful trend is emerging. In addition, most of his goals or assists occurred at the right timing and brought the club a result.
Antoine is almost the main conductor of Diego Simeone’s ideas on the field – he looks for space closer to the penalty area or attacks the finishing zones, tries to realize the moments himself or look for teammates with passes, moves the ball forward or makes jerks to different zones, attracting the attention of opponents.
This Atletico is very close to the one that Simeone wants to see. The club’s progress is worth recording at this stage Even despite the factors described above, it must be said – the team increasingly resembles a clear structure than a few years ago. Then the development resembled an attempt to break through a brick wall. Diego Simeone tried to change generations, to direct it towards an attacking style, then this idea turned out to be too difficult to implement, there were attempts to return classic football, but this did not bring success either.
Therefore, the “colchoneros” got stuck somewhere in the middle – there is no monolithic defense that became the hallmark of the club under the leadership of “Cholo”, but there was no transformation into a positional giant, so “Atletico” was a fun team that conceded and scored a lot, but was unstable. Now the second point still applies. The current game is increasingly reminiscent of modern football, where the focus is primarily on attack, not defense. Simeone deserves praise for this, because he fundamentally changed his philosophy, keeps up with the times – and it works.
No less positive feedback should be said about the management. Of course, to fire Diego would require a very strong argument, a conditional place outside the European cups or some loud failures, but doubts about his ability to create a completely new version of the club at some point were enough.
As of now, Atletico’s form allows us to talk about it as a contender for the title, but for now it looks like an advance, because the team needs to prove its stability on the distance. Considering a similar season in the performance of its competitors, it is quite possible to try to squeeze one of them.