In the last two decades, Atlético Madrid are the only team to have broken Barcelona and Real Madrid’s stranglehold on Spanish football. By winning LaLiga in 2014 and 2021, Diego Simeone turned Spain’s Big Two into a Big Three and Los Colchoneros are once again making their presence felt in another title race.
Saturday’s match between Barcelona and Atleti has the potential to be a season-defining moment for both teams. While Barca need a positive result to stop the slide that has seen them win just one of their last six league fixtures, Simeone’s side could go clear at the top of the table with a victory.
It wasn’t so long ago that Simeone appeared to be facing a reckoning at the Metropolitano. An inconsistent start to the season raised questions over the Argentine’s future at the club. Between the 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano in mid-September and the 1-0 defeat to Real Betis in late October, Atleti won just two from six games.
More damning than this was yet another failure by Simeone to evolve the playing style of his team. Not for the first time, the Argentine attempted to turn Atlético Madrid into a more modern, expansive outfit. And not for the first time, Atleti’s players struggled to absorb the new ideas of their manager. The safest job in European football no longer looked so safe.
Within a few weeks, though, the situation changed. The defeat to Betis was the last time Atleti dropped points in the league with Simeone’s side currently on an 11-game winning streak in all competitions. Not only are Atlético back to being a winning team, they’re a Simeone team again too. ‘Cholismo’ is back.
Clean sheets against Las Palmas, Mallorca, Real Valladolid and Getafe have given Atleti a platform to climb the table. They might not be as defensively stubborn as they were in the days of Diego Godín and Miranda, but Atlético have managed to stem the flow of goals they were conceding too easily earlier in the season.
Even when Atleti have been defensively vulnerable, they have shown spirit to fight back – as they did against Sevilla earlier this month when a 93rd minute winner completed a comeback that saw Atlético come back from 3-1 down to win 4-3. If Atleti win the title this season, that result will be looked back upon as a catalyst.
Simeone made some key changes to turn around his team’s fortunes. He moved away from the back three that gave Atleti’s early-season opponents too much space to exploit in the final third and brought Javi Galán into the lineup at left back, making good use of the 30-year-old’s energy just a few months after he came close to leaving the capital club in the summer.
Pablo Barrios was brought into the central midfield unit to freshen up an area of the Atleti team that had been too static over the early stages of the season. As a pairing, Koke and Rodrigo De Paul lacked the mobility to cover the pitch as a double pivot. With Barrios in there, though, Atlético Madrid have a true two-way operator.
On the right side, Giuliano Simeone was given the chance to earn a place in his father’s team. Far from being an over-promoted nepo-baby, the 22-year-old has brought cohesion to the Atlético attack through his work ethic and versatility. Simeone is certainly a chip off the old block and this has helped give Atleti an identity again.
Further forward, Julián Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann have been partnered together as a fluid, mobile front two. Originally, Simeone originally wanted to use summer signing Alexander Sørloth as the focal point of a front three that had Alvarez in a wider position. Now, the 2022 World Cup winner has the freedom to take up good scoring positions centrally.
Atleti’s resurgence has coincided with a dramatic dip in form from Barcelona. Lamine Yamal’s absence through injury has unsettled the Catalans in attack while Hansi Flick’s high defensive line has made his team vulnerable to opponents that can exploit open space with speed and directness. This could be to Atleti’s benefit on Saturday.
Real Madrid are also in title contention, but have suffered struggles of their own. Kylian Mbappé has still to be fully integrated into Carlo Ancelotti’s frontline while Toni Kroos’ retirement at the end of last season has left Los Blancos lacking a midfield pace-setter in the centre of the pitch. Real Madrid are an unbalanced team.
“We have to take it one game at a time, there is no way to see our present without working and trying to keep improving,” said Simeone when asked about the growing possibility of Atlético mounting a genuine title challenge this season. “I’m reiterative, I’m boring, I’m not going to change. Until the last day, it will be one game at a time. If we don’t look at it that way, there will be no light.”
Simeone’s legacy as Atleti manager was secured a long time ago. He is the most important figure in the club’s modern history. The Metropolitano is proof of the transformation that has taken place over the 13 years that Simeone has been in charge, as are the two championships won in that time. However, a third league title for an Atlético team that started the season so poorly would be a triumph unlike any other so far.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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