THE worst week of Diego Simeone’s nine years as Atletico Madrid coach has led to the biggest crisis of confidence of his time in charge, just as huge games against Real Madrid and Liverpool loom.
In eight days Atletico lost to Eibar in La Liga for the first time ever, were dumped out of the Copa del Rey by third tier La Cultural Leonesa, and drew 0-0 at home to neighbours Leganes to drop to fifth place in the Primera Division table.
To make things worse, they were overtaken by another nearby team in Getafe, and now sit 10 points behind leaders Madrid ahead of Saturday’s ‘derbi’ against Zinedine Zidane’s in-form machine at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
Such a nightmarish sequence has lead to lots of soul-searching around the Wanda Metropolitano – and there even some whistles for Simeone's substitutions on Sunday, while the AS report on the game said Atletico were now ‘in a coma’.
Meanwhile in Spain, Atletico Madrid have been knocked out of the Copa del Rey by third-tier side Cultural Leonesa pic.twitter.com/7c7AwRGeNQ
— Goal (@goal) January 23, 2020
Atletico have won just 13 of 30 games so far this season, and their 22 goals scored in the first 21 La Liga outings is by far the worst of Simeone’s reign. Most worryingly of all his team seem to have lost the clear identity that was their most valuable asset under El Cholo’s management – an uncanny ability to get a positive result no matter how difficult the situation.
“In other moments these type of matches were lost,” Simeone said after the 0-0 at home to Leganes. But that is not really the case. What made his Atletico so unique was their uncanny knack of finding a way to win exactly these type of tricky games 1-0. Never one to back down from a battle, Simeone spoke after the Leon defeat about his obsession with bringing success to the club. “Often I can’t sleep as I don’t know which team to pick,” he said. “Atletico is my life, the people around me know that.”
The most obvious explanation for this ‘crisis’ is that this was always going to be a season of transition for Atletico – with more than half a team leaving last summer in Antoine Griezmann, Diego Godin, Rodrigo, Lucas Hernandez, Filipe Luis and Juanfran Torres. Promising young signings like Joao Felix and Renan Lodi were always going to need time to settle in. And other new arrivals like ex-Porto centre-back Filipe and England international right-back Kieran Trippier have played as well as could be expected.
The biggest worry is that players who were supposed to become the team’s new leaders – especially homegrown midfielders Saul Niguez and Koke – have not stepped up. Koke was whistled for his below-par performances before Christmas, with Simeone publicly saying the club captain’s game was suffering as he was trying to do too much. Saul has just two goals all season, and keeps getting shuttled to left-back.
Over Simeone’s time in charge Atletico as a club have changed beyond all recognition. The physical move from their old crumbling Estadio Vicente Calderon home to the shiny Wanda Metropolitan move has been accompanied by an increase in annual revenues from €124.5m in 2011 to €367.6m this year [per Deloitte’s figures]. That also brings extra expectation, and means the old ‘Robin Hood’ image of fairytale against the odds success no longer washes.
A recurring theme of recent seasons has been Simeone attempting to ‘evolve’ his teams style during the autumn – bringing in more technical players from Nico Gaitan to Thomas Lemar. Only for them to struggle to fit in, and El Cholo to return to a more aggressive and rugged approach when the biggest games came around in the springtime.
Atletico Madrid have now scored just 22 goals in 21 league games pic.twitter.com/02pffUUOxO
— Goal (@goal) January 26, 2020
But Simeone no longer has a team of 'warriors' who will run through walls for him. This is most clearly shown by a very worrying weakness at set-pieces. Seven of their 14 goals conceded in La Liga this season have come at goals or corners, by far the worst percentage of any of the 20 teams.
Meanwhile there is no evidence that Simeone and coaching staff are suited to getting the best from their more technical players. Lemar could leave this January, while €127 million experiment Joao Felix has four goals and two assists in 24 appearances so far. The 19-year-old has shown admirable character in keeping showing for the ball and trying to create things, but looks short of confidence without a team structure to enable him to shine.
One positive ahead of Saturday’s game at the Bernabeu, and February 18’s Champions League last 16 first leg against Liverpool, is that Simeone can lift his side for the biggest occasions. They could easily have lost 5-1 to Barca in early January’s Spanish Supercopa semi-final in Saudi Arabia, but stuck in the game and blitzed the blaugrana late on to qualify. They then matched Madrid over 120 minutes in the decider – and might have won it late on but for Fede Valverde’s professional foul on Alvaro Morata.
“The first thing is hard work,” said Simeone last weekend when asked how he could turn things around quickly. “We have a week to regain our composure, which is necessary in football. I have a quality squad. On Saturday we will go to the Bernabeu looking to win the game.”
Atletico also have two wins and three draws from their last five LaLiga games at the Bernabeu. Simeone's teams used to thrive in adversity. But things seem to have changed at the Wanda.
