Due to a 2-1 defeat by Porto and a 0-0 draw between Bayer Leverkusen and Brugge, the Atletico MADRID finished 4th in Group B of the Champions League and, as a result, did not even make it to the Europa League enough to allow him to continue competing in Europe for the rest of the season.
It is a severe blow to Diego Pablo Simeone’s work at the head of the mattress team, and possibly is experiencing its most difficult moments since the Argentinian coach took over in December 2011. There are a few reasons that explain how Atlético ended up in this situation.
The wear and tear
Simeone is about to celebrate 11 years as manager of the Madrid team. even though the layer He underwent a transformation thanks to his work, the demand also increased and the team lately could not meet these expectations, especially in Europe. It is the first time Atletico will not play in European competition in the second half of the season since the Argentine became their manager.
Without the backbone of players like Diego Godin, Miranda, Filipe Luis, Gabi, Thiago and Diego Costa, cholos he was forced to restructure his team and for that he chose younger footballers and if you want more technicians, such as Mario Hermozo, Felipe, Thomas Lemar, Rodrigo De Paul or Joao Felix, among others, but for different reasons Simeone he couldn’t get along with these players in the same way he did with the pillars of Atletico’s best.
Defense, from strength to weakness
If in previous years scoring a goal against Atlético Madrid seemed like an epic for any opponent, at the moment the colzonero is far from it and is very fragile in his area. The data that reflects this is that the nine goals conceded in this Champions League group stage It is the most goals conceded on that occasion since Simeone became the team’s manager.
Atlético have conceded 9 goals in this group stage #UCLthe most in the group stage under Diego Simeone. pic.twitter.com/GuwIJxEvAe
— ESPN Data (@ESPNData) November 1, 2022
The right names added to the defense to replace the hierarchs did not respond and the Argentinian DT looked for different variations, for example he started using systems with a line 5. However, the overall performance was never the same and on many occasions he was saved thanks to goalkeeper Jan Oblakwho managed to cover several problems of the collective.
Difficulty adjusting
Several leaders of the best era have already retired, some are in the final years of their careers, but Simeone’s message of “feeling inferior to the rest” and of effort remains the same when Atlético are the 8th highest spending team in the market the last five years (705 million euros in total). The Argentinian DT is struggling to adapt to a style of players that doesn’t quite match his vision and mentality.
The case of Joao Félix is representative. The 22-year-old Portuguese, who arrived at Atletico in 2019, he is one of the most talented soccer players in the world and yet he was never able to fully settle into his new team. This season, the former Benfica man has been a substitute in 9 of the 16 games he has played for the club. The cholos He will have to turn the page quickly as he has plenty of games left in La Liga and will not want to lose track of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
