Atl. Madrid huffing and puffing....this looks like another agonizing lost
something is lackingbin this team, and aint talent
it must be rough being an atletico fan
At a certain point you just get numb to it
simeone needs to go. It's time for a change.
It isn't rough being an Atletico fan at all, yea your hoping for more but let's be realistic, Atletico are not on a level as Real Madrid and Barcelona and never have been,we won the league in 13-14 but it was almost 20 years after the last title win, and we got relegated in that time, and the title win before that was again almost another 20 years. You asked me in 2008 and I would have seriously doubted Atletico winning the league any time soon and would laugh at the idea of a champions league final let alone two in what three years? The success of this period has led to high expections but with Atleti my feet are still firmly on the ground, I go into every season expecting the la liga to end up at the Nou camp or the bernabeu.
With that being said tho this is the thing with Atleti, Simone got us to where we are but Simone is now hindering the clubs progress. For example when simeone took over and we won the league we were playing the 4-4-2, squad had not the most technically gifted players in the world but they were fine footballers, they worked incredibly hard and were rock solid as a team defensively. The first champions league final vs Real Madrid we started a midfield of Raul Garcia, Gabi, Koke and Tiago, all four are natural centre midfielders so no wingers or wide type players in the midfield and all apart from Raul Garcia are naturally more defensive than offensive and even Raul Garcia can play defensively aswell.
Fasy forward to today, the team has changed, in players like Thomas Lemar, Joao Felix, Angel Correa, Vitolo we have players that are better technically and better offensively, players that can beat men with skills and open up teams but yet there is no change to the tactics in the team. We line up the same way we line up back then, the same 4-4-2 line up and simeone still packs the midfield 4 with all natural central midfielders with Koke, Partey and Saul or a herrera or Marcos Llorente rarely and then puts a Correa or a Lemar there. We have completely different type of players, a far more capable team going forward but Simeone sets the team up the same way he always has. And we wonder why we can't get the best out of a Lemar or why fantastic attacking players like Gelson or Gaitan couldn't pop at Atleti, he's still trying to play the same way, the balanced more leaning to a defensive style of play and ends up limiting these players. Either Simeone is scared of adapting or he can't adapt and it doesn't matter which one is correct to be honest both should mean the same thing, that Atletico need a new manager to have any hopes of progressing further, it's like when Tottenham got rid of Harry Redknapp he had got them fourth but to progress they needed something more and eventually came Pochettino.
Another thing that has always kinda annoyed me about Simeone, he's a legend forever but he can't utilize a squad. He has his first 11 and one or two more players he uses and that's it, he doesn't know how to rotate or keep a 20 man squad happy which an Alex Ferguson could do any any other big club manages to do, utizing regularly more than just your first 11. It why people like Gelston Martins and Nicholas Gaitan came and went without playing much at all, never got the game time they needed, it's why we are seeing someone like Marcos Llorente spend most of his time sitting on the bench right now despite being a fantastic player, the best alternative we probably could have found for Rodri except he has a better pass than Rodri.