Argentine’s Atletico Madrid have reached two finals with their ultra-defensive football but their new, wide-ranging innovations are winning awards in La Liga
Premier League fans who looked in for Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid last month can be forgiven for accepting that nothing has changed at Wanda Metropolitano.
That was the only old Diego Simeone ultra-waterproof; the same old plan for destruction rather than creation. In Madrid, however, the response was completely different: Atleti had let themselves down.
A season explained by a striking repetition of the club’s style of play should have ushered into something more progressive and property-based in the Champions League.
Instead, Simeone returned from his progressive approach in the last-16 first leg against Chelsea, returning to type with a flat six back and frustrating tactics. It was a Cholismo an act of obedience, and not a very good act.
Atletico just won’t play like that anymore, even in the big games, and it showed. Chelsea’s excellent high pressure closed all Rojiblancos ’paths before he even started.
Thomas Tuchel went hard on player Joao Felix – cutting off the supply line to Luis Suarez – as the Spaniards were locked in their own half. They were static and insecure in falling to tame loss.
Surely Simeone won’t make the same mistake again? Surely Wednesday night he will return to the new system that brought Atletico to the top of La Liga?
Progress in the connection depends on it – as does the club ‘s chances of ever winning the Champions League.
It may surprise some to learn that Atletico ‘s tight, defensive and straightforward approach last month was certainly a testament to their new values: 2020-21 has been a season of shaking up their underdog status and trading it for a more relevant look of today’s football. and their financial resources.
Joao Felix ‘s signing in the summer of 2019 for € 126 million (£ 113m / $ 150m) was due to mark a change in approach, but in the end the 2019-20 season was an intervening year. strange movement.
Atletico struggled to play higher up the pitch or with more possession, and as results recall, Simeone returned to his convincing techniques.
However, after a year of change, things clicked, and Simeone achieved success in a 3-4-1-2 form with a high-pressure, high-line, property-centric form.
Backers Kieran Trippier and Yannick Carrasco play vital roles in providing breadth and penetration, while backs three (of graceful defenders play ball, nothing like Diego Godins at the time gone) gives Atleti a calm and balanced feeling when he passes a ball out of defense.
Higher up the pitch, Koke is moved into a more advanced playmaking role that allows him to pull the strings in a completely different way, while Luis Suarez is backed by Felix’s ingenuity between the lines.
The young Portuguese star, and Thomas Lemar, are now thriving in advanced fields where they belong, rather than being locked in defensive levels of play. That, at least, was the system and view of aggression that Atleti described during the autumn.
However, ever since Trippier ‘s 10-game stoppage in December, and his injury to Carrasco, has quickly begun to resolve.
The loss of both backs hit the club’s wing hard, removing a vital part of the 3-4-1-2 and turning a proven proprietary football into something far less effective.
Atleti have won just three of their last nine games in all competitions, dropping 11 points from their last eight La Liga games – that’s almost double the total fell in the first half of the season.
It turns out that a more distributed system lacks some of Simeone’s old-fashioned grid.
After turning back to 4-1-4-1, and after an endless rotation of new faces into the position at right-back, Atletico’s season was starting to fall apart. when the Chelsea game came in.
So it can be understood that Simeone felt the need to pull something back and play for a 0-0 draw. The second leg should be completely different, though.
Trippier and Carrasco have both returned to the sidelines, with which it has become clear that Simeone can take the 3-4-1-2 back and the performances back from the first half of the season.
Notably, since the Chelsea game he has played both games in a 3-4-1-2 game and has not won the second game played in a 4-1-4-1 game, recently. draw 0-0 with Getafe at the weekend.
Simeone should now realize he needs to use the 3-4-1-2 – with Trippier and Carrasco flying up the wings and Atleti playing on the front leg – when they try to deficit 1-0 turn back at Stamford Bridge.
In addition to results dictating the creative choice, and even beyond the fact that his retention system was castrated by Chelsea journalists last time out, it often makes tactical sense to mirror it. the back of the opponent’s three.
Above all, they have to go for a break as this game represents a prime moment for Simeone ‘s Atletico Madrid.
Five years on from their last appearance in the final, there is a belief within the club that Colismo cannot win the Champions League.
Equally important is the club’s desire to play with style; to step out of the shadow of Real Madrid and paint themselves as European elites, moniker their success under Simeone deserves it.
They have to set that mark for a European audience, win or lose. The first leg was proof that the old system is not working; when he grows up, Atletico can’t just turn the old ways like tap on.
Most of Europe’s top clubs are struggling amid pandemic football, but Atleti has added to the trend with a tactical resurgence that has led them to win favor for La Liga.
This is their time. Now is the time to show Europe that Atletico, and their manager, have changed.