How have Atlético Madrid evolved under Diego Simeone?

Add as preferred source on Google

4 – Managerial improvement 

Comparisons of Diego Simeone to Jose Mourinho have often been made and in the dichotomy of tiki/taka offensive football, the Argentine and the Portuguese have emerged as natural villains to the Barca/Bayern/Madrid trio and Guardiola. Simeone; who like Mourinho embraces this role of villain, with nicknames like “El Cholo” (roughly meaning hick/country bumpkin) and “the man in black” has quickly reached cult status among football aficionados and players and with quotes like this it is easy to see why:

“I always ask my players, what kind of season do you prefer? One where you play all the matches, but you finish lower on the table and out of all major competitions? Or do you prefer to play 20 matches out of a total of 38, score 8 goals, and the team is crowned a champion? It never fails. They always choose the second option. ”

His no-nonsense attitude as a player; bordering on dirty play at times, has successfully translated into a managerial style that focuses on motivation and team spirit, with words like warrior, underdog and heart seemingly unavoidable in articles written about him. Encouraging veteran players like Gabi, Juanfran or Diego Godin to buy into his system of defense first football (conceding just 16 goals in 36 matches in the league) has been his calling card, but his trust in youngsters like Saul, Lucas or Stefan Savic needs to be mentioned as well. Cycling through six or seven forwards from David Villa, Mandzukic, Falcao, Costa, Torres and Griezmann and getting key goals and consistent performances from them is another great accomplishment for the coach, while cajoling solid minutes out of washed-up players like Diego (remember this goal ) and the artist formerly known as Martin Demichelis is pure Melisandre Game of Thrones level sorcery.

5 – Tactics

The Mourinho 2.0 version applies even more so to his tactics, which has a couple of key elements, laid out in this extensive piece by the Inside Channel’s Jake Meador. Getting almost everyone behind the ball has been a calling card of the Special One’s Inter teams that Simeone has mastered, as you can see from this image.

His team patiently sits deep in a horizontally and vertically compact formation and like a chess-playing predator pounces when the moment strikes, as the opponent makes a tactical error:

https://twitter.com/szteveo/status/728858418291875844

Lazy pundits will often refer to this as parking the bus but in reality, there is an enormous amount of calculated risk-taking and intelligent defending that goes into such a playing style. For more on how Simeone built the world’s best defense, I recommend Tom Payne’s excellent breakdown of the Bayern match, and Thore Haugstad’s Leicester – Atlético article from February.

Fundamentally, Atlético are happy to concede meaningless possession to the likes of Barca, Bayern and Real all the way up to their 18 yard box because as long as they keep their shapes, those passes are largely irrelevant. That can be enormously frustrating for even great Barca stars,  who were constantly frustrated by getting double-teamed and pressed in the wide areas – another Simeone speciality – as can be seen in the screen-grab below.

Jürgen Klopp’s famous counter or Gegenpressing strategy has also rubbed off on Simeone as noted soccer statistician Michael Caley explains in his Washington Post article:

“This seems to create an opportunity. Atlético Madrid is a team that thrives in transition: its late back-breaking goals against Barcelona and Bayern came from fast counterattacks. In La Liga, Simeone’s side has created 38 shots from very direct attacks, second most in the league after Barcelona.”

That sort of press, aside from being an effective offense unto itself also frustrates, not just strikers, but even the best passers, as Jerome Boateng found out famously on the Griezmann goal, as he compounded the error of his bad pass by foolishly pressing up on Gabi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMW91qPoWB0

The final weapon in Simeone’s repertoir is being adaptable: not adhering to any one school of thought, the Argentine rather focuses on making small adjustments from match to match or even within a match. Here is an example of an in-game change.

https://twitter.com/szteveo/status/727767839118135296

This quote from a WorldSoccertalk article explains that “Match-by-match” means no fixed idea or strategy but rather adapting to changes that come into play. Similarly, Simeone takes the same stance when deciding his starting eleven.“I don’t want players who want to be the main characters. If you don’t give it your all and I can feel it, someone else will take your place. Nothing is guaranteed, and if you fall asleep, you’re out.”

So, after all that should we be surprise that Simeone had the following reply when asked about his style:

What’s the saying? Black never goes out of style.

Featured Image – All Rights Reserved by chao1989.