Atletico Madrid
Atleti have shaken up the established order in LaLiga this season and are very much in the hunt for the league title. How have they done it?
Inspired by the arrival of Luis Suárez and the tactical nous of manager Diego Simeone, Atlético Madrid are proving this season that LaLiga is no longer a two-horse race. Los Colchoneros have charged to the summit of the league standings and look poised to upset the odds and break rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona’s duopoly of the title. KICK OFF’s Liam Bekker was invited to LaLiga’s 90th anniversary event, where former Atléti star Luis Garcia shared his thoughts on this season’s enthralling title race and shed light on some of the key factors behind the club’s pursuit of being crowned champions of Spain.
Having ended the 2019/20 LaLiga campaign in third position and 17 points behind eventual champions Real Madrid, Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid have enjoyed a remarkable change in fortunes this season and have led the current league standings uninterrupted since match week 14.
With a new-found spark in attack to compliment the club’s famed defensive proficiencies, Los Colchoneros ended 2020 with a five-point lead over their hometown rivals and, despite suffering a blip in form since the turn of the year, look poised to break Los Blancos’ and Barcelona’s duopoly over the league.
Real Madrid and Barca have won a combined 60 league titles between them, including two for the former and four for the latter across the last six seasons. Despite the historical giants’ dominance of the division however, Atléti, who are the only other side to have won the league in the last 10 years, are once again threatening to disrupt the status quo.
Former Spain international-turnedLaLiga-ambassador Luis Garcia is cautiously optimistic about the club’s chances of doing just that and believes Simeone’s side are favourites beat their more esteemed rivals to the title.
“Atlético Madrid are on fire but it’s very difficult,” Garcia told a panel of journalists at the LaLiga 90th anniversary event. “From the point of view as a former player, you never give up and Real Madrid, Barcelona and even Sevilla are right there to fight. They’re going to continue trying and they have to not let the other teams take points from them, but Atlético look very strong.”
Disrupting the status quo
While Atlético Madrid have emerged as the frontrunners this season, both Real Madrid and Barcelona have appeared to falter on the pitch. The reigning champions have been unable to maintain the levels of consistency under Zinedine Zidane that saw the club claim a record-extending 34th title last time out, while Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona are facing a myriad of off
“WITH HIS AGE AND HIM NOT HAVING A GOOD PRE-SEASON, IT WAS A BIT UNCERTAIN.”
field challenges, including boardroom unrest, crippling debts and the uncertainty surrounding captain Lionel Messi’s future.
Indeed, a large factor behind Atléti’s success this season was the club’s foresight to capitalize on Barca’s situation to sign Luis Suárez, with the Uruguay star’s arrival helping to turn the club into one of the league’s most complete outfits.
The Madrid-based outfit pounced to sign the 34-year-old after he was cast out by the Catalan giants at the start of the campaign and the veteran striker has rewarded their faith immediately, topping the goalscoring charts this season with 16 goals at the time of writing. Suárez’s arrival at the Wanda Metropolitano is reminiscent of David Villa’s move from Barca to Atléti in 2013, which proved to be the catalyst for Los Rojiblancos’ last league triumph, and Garcia believes that he is a perfect fit for the club.
“They’ve got Luis Suárez, of course, who has been a massive, massive, addition to this Atlético Madrid side,” the former Liverpool star shares. “I think he was a gift from Barcelona, to be honest, probably because of the situation the club was having at the moment.
“I think Atlético Madrid took advantage. Of course, it was a flip of a coin in the air though because Suárez came from having a few injuries. And, with his age and him not having a good pre-season, it was a bit uncertain what he was going to add to this Atlético Madrid which is a physical side.
“But I think he adapted very well.
His character is a very perfect match to Simeone’s one and that’s why he’s enjoying, at the moment, one of his best seasons in the last few years.”
So impressed has Garcia been of Suárez that he believes the two-time European Golden Shoe winner has been the player of the season in Spain’s top flight.
“Luis Suárez [has been the best player] because of the situation he has been in in the past few months, struggling, leaving Barcelona, arriving, and adapting to a new club and a new style of play,” the 42-yearold shares.
“He has managed to mix all of that and the change of mindset to continue being a top striker at his age. And you know that being the top scorer of LaLiga is not very easy and he has managed to score 16 goals already.
“Everybody was thinking that, maybe, it was time for him to leave to another league with a lower level of intensity or standards, but he has impressed us a lot and I’m glad to still see him playing in LaLiga and for Atlético Madrid to be doing so well.”
Simeone at the centre of success
When Diego Simeone won the 1995/96 LaLiga title as a player with Atlético Madrid, few supporters of the club would have imagined that they would need to wait for the Argentine centurion to return as manager more than a decade later before seeing their side lift the coveted trophy once again.
Since assuming the reigns, the 50-yearold has won no fewer than seven major honours, including the 2013/14 LaLiga trophy and two UEFA Europa League crowns, while he has also guided Atléti to two UEFA Champions League finals.
“We have to give a lot of credit to Diego Simeone,” Garcia tells KICK OFF when asked about the three-time LaLiga Coach of the Year’s influence at the club. “Credit for finally see Atlético Madrid as a power, not only in Spain but around the world after winning a LaLiga title, being in two Champions League finals, and for bringing a philosophy to the club that was probably lost for a few years.”
“JOÃO FÉLIX HAS BECOME THE BIG STAR THAT EVERYONE WAS EXPECTING HIM TO BECOME WHEN HE ARRIVED.”
Simeone has built his team’s success on the foundation of a strong defensive unit, with the club having become renowned as one of the world’s most resolute sides, but Los Rojiblancos have presented as an entirely different beast this season.
“Luis Aragonés implemented a style of play that saw Atlético Madrid being a team that enjoys those fast counter-attacks,” Garcia continues. “But it was a team that was often very open and when Simeone arrived back in 2011, he arrived with a [new] philosophy and a mentality to bring to the players.
“I think that transition from there until today, we can call it 10 years, has been fantastic. Just to see the way the club has understood that in order to face the top two teams at the moment, Real Madrid and Barcelona, with a lower budget to spend in the market, it was about unity, creating a team spirit that could fight against any team in Spain.
“It started from the back – very well organised, very compact, and with everybody running. We’ve seen with the likes of Kun [Sergio] Agüero, [Diego] Forlán, [Antoine] Griezmann, [Diego] Costa, all of them were strikers but all of them ran and fought to try and win the game, in defence and in attack.
“We then arrive at the point where, over the last couple of years, we saw a little bit of a difference because of the talent that Atlético Madrid have, you needed to bring something more to the table not just defending.
“And, I think this year it is finally the butterfly coming out of the cocoon where we can see an amazing team, defending very well, very well organised, knowing what to do, and every single player that comes into the game brings something different...”
A squad worthy of the title
While Simeone and Suárez will receive most of the plaudits, Atlético Madrid’s form has also been made possible by a target recruitment drive over the last few years, which includes spending a clubrecord €126 million (R2.2 billion) to sign Portuguese sensation João Félix from Benfica last season.
Garcia singles the 21-year-old out for praise alongside a number of his peers, who have all helped transform the club into an irrepressible attacking force this season.
“You’ve got a bunch of different players who can offer different ways to play,” he explains. “We can defend very well, we can attack in this beautiful way with [Ángel] Correa, [ Yannick] Carrasco and Luis Suárez. João Félix has become the big star that everyone was expecting him to become when he arrived, which is another credit to Diego Simeone who understood that a young player arriving at a top team in the world, as Atlético Madrid is, needed an adaptation of everything – of rhythm, of physicality, of the pressure of playing at the Wanda where there are 70 000 supporters, and he managed that situation very well.
“Now Félix has become that big star. Even that transition, we have to give it to Simeone, and we are enjoying an amazing team, a complete team at the top of the table at the moment, and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.”
Garcia also lauds the mid-season signings of Geoffrey Kondogbia and Moussa Dembélé, whose arrivals have added even more strength in depth to the high-flying title contenders. “They recently signed another two players with Kondogbia and at the front Dembélé, so they have an even stronger squad for the last part of the competition,” he continues. “Kondogbia has arrived to also give some extra strength. Losing Thomas Partey
[to Arsenal] last year was a big blow for Atlético Madrid. Simeone knew that and straight away he has brought in a similar player who can fight, who can run, who can give that power, but who can also play with the ball and bring the ball forward, can add something different to the game.
“That’s something that Simeone has also done so well, bringing in those players in those special positions and that’s why they look so strong. You know, there’s a lot of games and there will need to be a lot of rotation, but I see Atlético Madrid as very mature, very consistent, with a lot of confidence.
“We’ve seen the club performing very well for many years, but in a way of defending very well, being very well organised at the back and using counterattacks to score goals, but at the moment they are very balanced.
“They defend very well, they are very well organised but they [now] have the flair in their football, the quality of football that we all enjoy.”
“THEY DEFEND VERY WELL, THEY ARE VERY WELL ORGANISED BUT THEY [NOW] HAVE THE FLAIR IN THEIR FOOTBALL.”