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Initially of each season, LaLiga followers ask the identical query: Will this be one more head-to-head title race between the 2 giants, Actual Madrid and Barcelona? Or will Atletico Madrid mount a severe third-party problem for the crown?
Over the previous 10 years, Atletico have constantly punched above their weight. Beneath coach Diego Simeone they’ve gained the league twice — in 2014 and 2021 — and completed second in 2018 and 2019, breaking apart the large two. They have not completed outdoors the highest three since 2012.
It is essentially the most constant spell within the membership’s historical past, however improved efficiency has raised expectations. Atletico are actually anticipated to compete for the LaLiga title — or at the very least keep inside touching distance of Madrid and Barca, pushing all of them season lengthy. Atletico are additionally anticipated to succeed in the latter phases of the Champions League, as they did in 2014 and 2016 once they made it by means of to the ultimate.
Stream dwell on ESPN+: Actual Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, US solely)
Final season noticed Atletico at each their finest and their worst. In LaLiga they put collectively an distinctive second half of the marketing campaign, choosing up 43 factors in 18 video games — 5 greater than league winners Barca. However within the Champions League, they crashed out on the group stage for simply the second time in a decade.
Forward of Sunday’s derby with Actual Madrid, ESPN examines Atletico’s prospects this season, their causes for optimism and a few worrying indicators from the marketing campaign to date.
Check out Atletico’s previous three outcomes, and you will be scratching your head making an attempt to attract any conclusions.
They gained 7-0 at Rayo Vallecano on Aug. 28, their largest league win since 2016. A press release win, you would possibly name it. 4 totally different forwards — Antoine Griezmann, Memphis Depay, Álvaro Morata and Ángel Correa — received on the scoresheet. A workforce recognized for his or her stifling defensive mindset beneath Simeone now appeared like they have been having enjoyable.
Two weeks later, an unrecognisable Atletico misplaced 3-0 to Valencia, a workforce tipped for relegation. Simeone referred to as it “presumably the weakest sport since I have been on the membership,” a run that started virtually 12 years in the past, when he took cost in December 2011. The outcome leaves Atletico on seven factors from 4 matches, eight factors behind leaders Actual, albeit with a sport in hand.
On Tuesday, Atletico have been seconds away from seeing out a useful 1-0 win at Lazio of their opening Champions League Group E sport when goalkeeper Ivan Provedel headed in a spectacular, Ninety fifth-minute equaliser for the Serie A facet. It was a particular second for Lazio and nice enjoyable for the neutrals, however a catastrophe for an Atletico facet determined to keep away from a repeat of final season’s group stage battle.
So an easy win, a shambolic defeat and a draw that was unforgettable for all of the flawed causes, all in fast succession. Will the actual Atletico Madrid please rise up?
Atletico followers have gotten used to excessive highs and lows. Simeone has actually raised the usual on the membership, however for each exceptional LaLiga title or large European evening, there’s an embarrassing Copa del Rey defeat to a lower-league workforce — Cornella in 2021, Cultural Leonesa in 2020 — or a determined scramble to salvage a season with a top-four end.
There’s additionally a relentless stress between Simeone’s underdog instincts — expressed by means of his conservative, safety-first method — and Atletico’s actuality because the established third drive in Spanish soccer, Champions League regulars with a 70,000-capacity stadium.
Lately, a well-recognized sample has emerged. “The workforce will undertake a extra enticing, attacking model,” the story goes. “Simeone is evolving. There might be room for aptitude in addition to perform.” These concepts are mirrored in switch enterprise, as Atletico signal gamers who counsel a change of mindset: trendy midfielder Thomas Lemar arrived from Monaco for a €70 million charge in 2018, with precocious ahead João Félix arriving for a club-record €126m in 2019.
Then because the season goes on and strain begins to construct as a result of Atletico’s monetary well being depends upon Champions League qualification — one thing Simeone has achieved for 11 years in a row — the workforce goes again to fundamentals and extra defensive soccer.
The 2022-23 season introduced extra issues. Each workforce needed to get used to the thought of a midseason World Cup in Qatar, however Atletico appeared notably affected, dropping factors in half their LaLiga video games earlier than the break in November.
Quite a lot of gamers — like Argentina‘s Rodrigo de Paul and Nahuel Molina, for instance — appeared extra targeted on being match and eligible for his or her nationwide groups. Selecting up an harm and lacking the possibility to affix Lionel Messi‘s quest for World Cup glory did not bear fascinated about. “Numerous them have been distracted,” a supply near the dressing room informed ESPN.
The World Cup wasn’t Atletico’s solely early season handicap. A dispute with Barcelona over the phrases of a deal to make Griezmann’s mortgage everlasting noticed the membership’s management even ask Simeone to bench his star participant as a negotiating tactic. Atletico have been obliged to pay Barca €40m if Griezmann performed 45 minutes or extra in half of the matches for which he was obtainable, a charge they have been reluctant to fulfill.
By October, a compromise had been reached with Barca and Simeone was free to construct the workforce round Griezmann, who responded by turning into the perfect, most influential outfield participant in LaLiga, racking up 15 targets and 16 assists in 2022-23. “Antoine is crucial,” a supply near the dressing room informed ESPN. “He is an instance for everybody. He is the primary to defend, and the primary to assault. He is crucial for the group and for [Simeone].”
Griezmann matches right into a long-term tactical shift which started in 2020, when Simeone started switching from the inflexible 4-4-2 formation he favoured earlier in his reign to a extra versatile 3-5-2. It is a system which permits for defensive solidity whereas getting the perfect out of attacking wingbacks like Kieran Trippier, who had been key to the 2021 league title win, however left for Newcastle final yr, and Yannick Carrasco, who left for Saudi Arabia this month, and Molina.
There was additionally a concerted effort, beginning in January 2023, to maneuver on gamers who had misplaced religion or did not match into the Simeone challenge. Membership-record signing João Félix was first on the record, loaned to Chelsea earlier than becoming a member of Barcelona this summer season. He admitted this week that he “did not adapt to the membership’s, or the coach’s, concepts.”
“With Cholo, you are both with him otherwise you’re not,” a supply near the dressing room informed ESPN utilizing Simeone’s nickname “Cholo,” which he obtained in his youth enjoying days. “There aren’t any shades of gray. When there’s someone who would not wish to be on the similar stage as the remainder of the group, the collective finally ends up resenting it. Everyone giving 100% is vital. No black sheep.”
It is could be no coincidence that alongside Felix, fellow Portuguese audio system Felipe, Matheus Cunha and Renan Lodi have additionally left the membership this yr.
With the World Cup up to now, Griezmann absolutely assimilated and dissenting voices exiled, Atletico put collectively a 13-game unbeaten run between January and April 2023. The streak meant they completed third, 11 factors behind champions Barcelona and one behind Actual Madrid — their poor begin had left them with an excessive amount of to do — however with a way of readability and confidence forward of this season.
“Final yr at first it was onerous for us,” Griezmann informed journalists on a name organised by ESPN and LaLiga final month. “After the World Cup, everybody thought of what they’d accomplished effectively or accomplished badly. We got here again with a need to enhance … We now have the group, the coach and the followers to do one thing large and we’ll goal as excessive as doable.”
This summer season’s switch market was vital, strengthening Atletico with the arrival of a level-headed, veteran chief like César Azpilicueta, and the membership managing to maintain De Paul and Molina. However the lack of Carrasco was a blow, as was the failure to signal a deep-lying midfielder.
“Our concept is to signal a central midfielder to strengthen in that space of the pitch,” CEO Miguel Angel Gil mentioned in August. They did not. And an harm disaster means Atletico now go into Sunday’s derby with Actual Madrid alarmingly quick in midfield.
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Memphis Depay scores beautiful objective from distance for Atletico Madrid
Memphis Depay places a phenomenal objective within the prime proper nook to provide Atletico Madrid the lead.
Captain Koke has been absent since he was injured simply seven minutes into the brand new season. De Paul was harm on worldwide obligation with Argentina. Lemar suffered an Achilles tendon rupture within the Valencia sport. Pablo Barrios and Axel Witsel each went off with discomfort in Rome.
A house win towards Actual Madrid, who’ve a 100% file to date, would get Atletico’s season again on observe. Defeat would depart them with an 11-point deficit, an unwelcome reminder of final season’s sluggish begin. Both manner, Simeone will stick with his notorious “partido a partido,” or “sport by sport” mantra.
” what our philosophy is,” midfielder Saúl Ñíguez mentioned at a LaLiga occasion final week. “Each time we have thought long-term, we have got it flawed, we have made errors. We do not need that to occur once more … We’ll see on the finish of the season if we’re candidates, or favourites, or no matter our stage is.”
Even after a decade of going toe-to-toe with Actual Madrid and Barcelona, there is a reluctance at Atletico to take that as the established order, or to just accept the thought of a stage enjoying discipline.
“We’re by no means candidates for something,” a supply near the dressing room informed ESPN. “We now have to be prepared for when Barca and Madrid slip up. Sadly, that does not occur yearly.”
