With the Spanish top flight shaping up at its most competitive level for the past decade, new elites Atletico Madrid are in danger of losing a grip on their season, writes HENRY FAGAN.
While glamour clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid have found ways to grind out results, Atletico look increasingly vulnerable to the surging capabilities of Sevilla, Villarreal and the rest of chasing pack.
Diego Simeone’s arrival at Atletico in 2011 triggered a dramatic ascendance in Rojiblancos’ footballing fortunes. Having introduced a pragmatic philosophy and a spirit of solidarity, the side began to play with a tenacity and defensive rigorousness unrivalled across Europe.
Combining some fastidious signings with Atletico’s established core of undervalued veterans and talented youngsters, Simeone’s insurrection was complete by the 2013-14 season; Rojiblancos stunned the world by claiming the La Liga title, ending Barca’s and Real’s duopoly and ushering in a new era to the Spanish game.
But 11 matches into the current campaign things are far from rosy … Ahead of a titanic clash against their league-leading rivals Real this weekend, Simeone’s side currently find themselves fourth on the table, six points behind their arch-enemy. While a win for Rojiblancos brings them straight back into contention, a loss would prove disastrous; it could leave them languishing as low as sixth on the table.
The irony of Atletico’s predicament is that at times this season they have looked a more flexible and creative outfit than at any other point during Simeone’s tenure. A dazzling 7-1 mauling of Granada back in mid-October excited onlookers, but a narrow defeat at the hands of a lethal Sevilla side the following round halted that momentum. Two weeks later a comprehensive loss to Real Sociedad followed.
The problem facing Atletico is an apparent struggle to maintain a balance between their resoluteness at the back and their forays forward. Long hailed as the best defensive outfit in Europe, Simeone has attempted to instil a greater degree of both control firepower to his side’s play this term, a transformation intended to ease the side’s goal-scoring burden, but which has caused unforeseen consequences.
Against elite teams Atletico play an extreme brand of counter-attacking football. While this strategy has proved largely successful for the rare matchups in which Atletico are underdogs, Simeone’s outfit has long played more adventurous football against middling and lesser opposition, where picking up three points week after week is essential.
The problem arises from La Liga’s second-tier threats. Aware that it is against these sides that they need to take the game to their opposition, Atletico have subsequently toiled. Against Sevilla they failed to create enough offensively, failing to a 1-0 defeat at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. But against Sociedad they lost control completely, neither staying true to their tenacious defensive shape nor breaking the opposition down. A humbling 2-0 loss was the result.
While a win against the European Champions on Saturday could go a long way to easing nerves at the club, even the three points cannot disguise the unsettling disjunction Rojiblancos must overcome. Until they can muster the right balance of attacking impetus, control, and defensive prowess, they face an uphill battle maintaining their status as one of Spain’s elite.
