What’s the matter with you, Atlético? Madrid’s big club searches for its identity after the title

Atlético Madrid are floundering after winning the Spanish title last year. It is already 17 points behind its leading city rival and the defensive system that has always been its mainstay under Diego Simeone is not working at all. Now, on the other hand, he has the most goals scored of any team in the top half of the table. And not only that. What is happening to the Spanish big club?

While the wheels of one are starting to gain momentum as the value in the games played column increases, those of the other have slowed down sharply in recent months. We’re talking about two big football clubs from Spain – Barcelona and Atlético Madrid – who measured each other in Sunday’s clash.

In it, the team from the capital of the monarchist country could fend off pressure from Xavi’s squad and consolidate its position in the top 4. But instead, a hard blow came in the form of a 4-2 defeat, followed by a relegation to fifth place just behind the blaugranas.

Sunday’s game can be described as a sort of culmination of a significant decline for the colchoneros, who have only beaten Vallecano, third-tier Rayo Majadahonda in the cup and Valencia on Spanish soil since the beginning of December. The latter even managed to take all the points at the end of January, although the half-time score was 0-2.

However, they couldn’t follow up their impressive turnaround, instead of kicking the declining colossus, it was just another heavy stumble. And the seventh defeat from the twelve matches Diego Simeone’s charges have entered since the beginning of the last month of last year.

Clearly, there is something wrong with the popular Argentine coach’s team. This is illustrated by other facts. For example, the team renowned throughout Europe as one of the most defensive-minded ever has pulled the ball out of its own net 12 times in its last five competitive matches.

Or the fact that in 14 matches since 20 November, they have kept a clean sheet only twice, once in the aforementioned cup match against an opponent two levels below them. Or the fact that in 22 league games this season, it has conceded 30 goals, the most of any team in the top half of the La Liga table and five more than it conceded in the whole of last season.

However, it is quite understandably not just the defensive line that is suffering problems, but the whole team.

Summer signing Rodrigo de Paul is far from living up to expectations, Luis Suarez this season is a mere ghost of the shining Argentine star who played with the whole of Spain after leaving Barcelona last year, and the likes of Mario Hermoso, who made his debut in a Catalan club’s jersey, still makes Adama Traore’s head spin.

On the other hand, as much as the poor form of many key players is a reasonable reason for Atlético’s current situation, they effectively form only the visible shell of a whole packed ball of problems.

“We are waiting until we are losing before we start playing properly,” lamented defender Stefan Savic. “I don’t know if it’s something in our heads, but if we want to be competitive in the Champions League playoffs, we have to change that.”

The words of the experienced Montenegrin probably sound the most apt to the whole situation. Indeed, the problems the team is going through appear to be largely psychological. The diagnosis may be an identity crisis.

If the team with the impenetrable defence that won La Liga in 2014 and 2021 and played the Champions League finals at the end of the 2013/14 and 2015/16 seasons no longer plays at the Wanda Metropolitano, then who does?

Atlético, it seems, is changing its football strategy. From being the best defending team on the Iberian Peninsula to being the team with the best offensive on paper in no time (at least until Barcelona’s purchases this transfer window).

Luis Suarez, Joao Felix, Antoine Griezmann, but also Angel Correa, Matheus Cunha, Thomas Lemar or Yannick Carrasco are all on his roster.

And the defence? That, on the other hand, is quite possibly the weakest ever since Diego Simeone arrived in 2011. “The last ten years we have defended extremely well, but this year we are not doing what we did before,” admitted the coach himself, who also saw Kieran Trippier, one of his defensive pillars, leave for Newcastle in January.

Even the Argentinian strategist is probably losing his touch. His squad has been very unreadable so far this season. Changing systems, mixing up the line-up, that’s almost the order of the day at this Madrid club. So the team hasn’t really had a chance to settle down and figure out how to present itself in the long term.

And that has logically led to worse chemistry in the cabin and a general lowering of confidence. The best example is goalie Jan Oblak. Until this season one of the best men at his position in the world and last year even the best player in the whole La Liga is struggling with very poor performances this year.

For example, according to the renowned WhoScored, he is the worst goalkeeper in his league so far this season!

Other possible reasons are again of a spiritual nature. In 2017, Atlético left their beloved home Vicente Calderon and moved to the new Wanda Metropolitano stadium, losing part of their soul in the process. The same happened after the recent departures of Gabi and Diego Godín.

Otherwise, the team has absolutely failed in standard situations this season. It lacks determination, dedication, in short, attributes that seem to have completely disappeared with the great success of last year.

After Jan Oblak, we can mention Luis Suarez. Last year, he also shone brightly. After all, his motivation was taken care of, after he was sacked from Barcelona he wanted to show the world that he was far from being an old man, which he did.

With twenty-one goals he dragged the Colchoneros to the dream title, but this year he seemed to have no reason to try again. He scored only eight goals in 21 games and if he doesn’t break through, this could be his worst season in a decade.

The aforementioned WhoScored ranks him in a deep average of 139th of all La Liga players (he was 15th last year).

Sometimes it almost seems that he only keeps his place in the line-up thanks to his star name, like Joao Felix, bought out in the summer of 2019 with a hardly imaginable 127 million euros. In other words, Simeone simply doesn’t know how to sit these out-of-form players down in a gentle manner.

And that’s another thing the Argentine hasn’t had to more or less address in his more than a decade of involvement with Madrid. After all, Atlético has not targeted big superstars so far in his era. At most, players have become them during their time at the club, like Antoine Griezmann.

Although Simeone hinted in the win over Valencia, with Correa and Cunha up front, that he was able to leave his big names on the bench if necessary, Sunday’s game against Barcelona showed that this was more of an exception.

Felix, meanwhile, put in yet another poor performance, while his 35-year-old Uruguayan teammate did score a goal and an assist, but at his age his strength is waning and he is often missing in other important activities, such as pressing.

“Barca had four chances in the first half and scored three times. We had the same number, but we scored only one goal. It’s all about being effective,” Simeone shared his thoughts after the last game. “I have to pick up on how effective our opponent was today. We have to try to improve the intensity of our play, our aggression and our concentration.”

After many years of the popular coach’s successful tenure, the first voices are beginning to speak of his impending end as Atlético head coach. For now, however, most of the club’s supporters remain loyal to him.

Either way, it is probably inevitable that the footballing juggernaut from Madrid experienced one last great joy before radical changes with the winning of last year’s title. With or without Simeon, the colchoneros need to find their identity again.

Source:: Goal.com, WhoScored, Transfermarkt