Graham Hunter, Spain editor
With a pleasant, however unrepentant, ‘Hola!’ to Real Madrid and Barcelona enthusiasts, the idea of this column is easy and uncomplicated: Atletico Madrid can, and more than likely will have to, win LaLiga this season.
It’s a conclusion now not only predicated on both Madrid shedding goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and defender Éder Militão to lengthy and debilitating accidents — nor on Barcelona’s hapless appearing of their 0-0 draw at Getafe on the weekend. And it definitely isn’t in regards to the easy indisputable fact that the 2021 champions defeated Granada 3-1 of their opening fixture, both. In lieu, it’s a conclusion any person paying right kind consideration over the occasion seven or 8 months will have to have arrived at.
It’s one in response to: Atleti’s squad attribute, a 24-carat accident partnership they’re cultivating, the truth that they’d LaLiga’s very best particular person participant closing season and, above all, the truth that their belligerent, talismanic mentor, Diego Simeone, got here blank over the summer season in admitting how atrocious they had been for the endmost part of 2022.
The attribute we’ll come again to — the accident partnership I’m regarding comes to Memphis Depay and Antoine Griezmann, moment LaLiga’s very best, maximum humorous and maximum scintillating footballer in 2022-23 was once the self-same Griezmann.
And the admission? Smartly, that was once nice-looking startling.
Simeone could be very savvy — a street-smart warrior. Select your personal adjective, euphemism or time period of preserved astonishment. The Argentine is competitive, genius and born to compete, and he’s by way of a long way the dominant character in Atleti’s 120-year historical past (in opposition to abundance festival) given what he’s accomplished each as a Roy Keane-style midfield marauder in his enjoying days, and later his G.O.A.T. trophy haul as Los Rojiblancos’ mentor. (I’m regarding his league/cup double as a participant in 1996, later 8 trophies and two Champions League finals as supervisor.)
However he’s stubborn, cussed and now not very at risk of both admitting he’s mistaken or that there’s anything else he would possibly have finished higher. So for the ones folks who had been in poor health of his uneasy, safety-first, deadly-dull, “change the formation every 20 minutes” techniques, that have been complicated and undermining his personal avid gamers, it was once like being passed an ice-cold beer in the midst of the Sahara wilderness to listen to him confess just lately as to how badly he and his avid gamers under-performed from August to mid-January closing season.
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The context: Atletico had been knocked out of Europe (completing base in their Champions League crew) by way of the primary of November; and nearest most effective 14 LaLiga fits, having suffered as many defeats as in entirety of both in their closing two title-winning seasons, Los Rojiblancos had been already 13 issues in the back of leaders Barcelona.
Within the instant post-World Cup “restart,” the workforce I’m tipping to win the identify this season dropped to inside one evil results of 9th place! It was once atrocious, however again later, no person in Atleti’s management, least of all Simeone, would admit that a number of issues had been very mistaken. Which is why his fresh, even though late, admission of ways related to the threshold he got here was once important.
From confession, soul-bearing and the office of claiming “mea culpa” comes recovery and development.
All through preseason in Asia, the 43-year-old Simeone informed Diario AS the reality. “Without any question, that period was the lowest point in the 11 years I’ve been in charge. We simply weren’t able to get across the ideas and the concepts we’d previously always been able to communicate to the squad. It did feel like the end of an era.
“I’m an optimist by way of nature, however I’m now not silly. I may just see what the entire residue of you had been ocular. We had been enjoying badly, loyalty and aim had been missing, and we weren’t gelling as a workforce. There was once negative sense of cohesion after we performed and we transmitted lack of confidence.
“The [World Cup] break came at just the right time for us. We were able to take a breather, work out what was going wrong and then change what we were doing. All of that took humility, determination and hard graft. There are very few clubs who could have dragged themselves out of the s— we were in after such a bad first half of the season, and with a group [of players] in the team that had lost their motivation and their identity, and who just weren’t gelling with what we were trying to do.
“It’s a larger fulfillment to simply accept what you’re doing badly and switch your efficiency spherical like we did in the second one a part of the season than it does to win a trophy.”
To assess that mess fairly, it’s imperative to accept that: Simeone was bedeviled by a series of important injuries; the strange contractual situation in which Griezmann found himself until Atleti actually completed a permanent move from Barcelona, rather than on loan with heavy financial penalties if he played regularly, and to throw in the fact that while frantically casting around for solutions the coach, himself, made things worse. But re-boot they did. From mid-January, after losing to Barcelona and drawing with Almeria, Atleti not only racked up goals and points — 46 goals and only two defeats in their next 21 matches — but were absolutely glorious fun to watch. Swashbuckling, daring, quick and confident, Simeone’s side was relentless in pursuit of the opposition net, rather than obsessing with blanket defence. There’s no trophy for it, of course, but Atleti “received” the second half of the season, earning five points more than Barcelona and being fully 10 points ahead of Madrid. Believe me: they rocked. Although just about everything — with the exception of untimely injuries to Reinildo Mandava, Memphis Depay and keeper Jan Oblak, which was probably enough to deny Atleti a shot at clawing back the gap on the title winners — went right between mid-January and June. Three key factors emerged. The partnership between Depay and Griezman was simply magnetic, and this one is a case of opposites attracting. Depay has showmanship deeply ingrained in his personality, while Griezmann is the ultimate team player. The Dutchman thinks that his team should be awarded extra league points for the number of times he can wow the crowd; meanwhile, Griezmann needs to be loved and to feel wanted in order to play his best, but he’s willing to work like two men combined to earn those feelings. In fact, he’s obsessed by that. Simeone calls Griezmann “a lavish particular person and a lavish participant. There’s a bond between us.” Last season, Griezmann told me he knew that he’d hurt the Atleti fans by leaving for Barcelona, and by how he’d done that. He was fiercely determined to erase that debt. His passes, his work off the ball, his chance-creation, his goals — everything he did seemed to dove-tail instantly with Depay, but also seemed to inspire everyone else in the squad. For various reasons the two men only started 38 LaLiga matches between them last season out of a possible 76. If they can hit the same level across, let’s say, 55+ match starts this term, then Atleti will be fearful rivals for anyone. Oblak appears to be are compatible once more, too: on his year, he’s some of the lead 5 keepers on the planet. Defenders Stefan Savic and Jose Gimenez were retained (and mode a lavish partnership when are compatible), however César Azpilicueta — who oozes character, enjoy and can to win — plus the bullish Caglar Söyüncü and irrepressible Javi Galán have all been added. Up entrance, Álvaro Morata has renewed his loyalty — “he’s fundamental to us,” Simeone argues — and, on the year of writing, no person’s but snagged Ángel Correa out of the squad. But on that entrance, Simeone admits “the market is the biggest threat to all the preparation we’re doing right now.” Within the interim, Samuel Lino and Rodrigo “Ro-Ro” Riquelme upload creativity and purpose blackmail nearest excellent on-loan seasons with Valencia and Girona respectively, too. Atleti’s very best XI is competitive, pacy, fluid, bodily and loaded with probability launch. And it now oscillates, easily, between 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 formations with out having a look like anyone had got rid of them of all their self-belief — which was once how closing season started. Atleti’s passionate enthusiasts on the Metropolitano also are again in love with the entire undertaking once more — it’s negative miniature subject to have them roaring you on. Now every other admission from Simeone. “We’ve developed a different identity from the one we had years ago: it’s more to do with what we do when we’re on the ball. The fans made it clear that they wanted more of that.” A lateral look, as soon as the case for Atleti has been made, means that Madrid shedding just about their complete backbone in Courtois, Militao and Benzema will harm them badly. And regardless of how neatly Barcelona mix signings and adolescence workforce promotions amid their monetary carnage, they continue to be a workforce in development — one thing their stadium is struggling too. The champions completely is not going to experience their couple of seasons up on Montjuic hill in a stadium that’s smaller in capability, unmistakable to the weather and has a working song across the tone. If Atleti really consider, if the João Félix status can also be resolved with every other mortgage clear of Madrid moment Simeone and the membership determine whether or not the Argentinian’s closing 12 months of assurance is a bridge in opposition to extra of the similar or the true finish of an life, later this is a successful 12 months for them in LaLiga. They’re now not odds-on favourites, and it received’t be simple for them, however they’ve a significant probability to capitalise on their very own excellent pace and the weaknesses in their opponents. Observe this dimension.
