With 11 consecutive victories across all competitions, Diego Simeone’s group is currently better than their rivals. The system change, the brilliant move with son Giuliano, the deep bench, and the stars are the secrets behind the coach’s success. On Saturday, the Colchoneros face the Catalans in a battle for first place in the table.
On Saturday afternoon, Atletico Madrid defeated Getafe 1-0 and rose to second place in the Spanish League table. It was their 11th consecutive victory. Only once in the past had Atletico recorded a better streak – 13 consecutive wins. This happened in Cholo Simeone’s first full season with the team, between August and October 2012.
The fourth victory in that historic streak was at Bloomfield, when Atletico beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-0 in the Europa League. The late Nitzan Shirazi was then Hapoel Tel Aviv’s coach, with players including Walid Badir and Gili Vermut. Christian “Cebolla” Rodriguez, Diego Costa, and Raul Garcia scored the goals.
Despite that achievement, 12 years ago Atletico was far from what it is today. But in the years that passed, Simeone transformed it into one of Europe’s best teams, reaching two Champions League finals and winning two Spanish championships.
This Saturday evening, Simeone and his players will arrive at the Montjuic Stadium to try to continue their current success streak, this time against Barcelona, who lead them in the table only on goal difference – but have also played one more game. While Atletico has won six consecutive league matches, during this same period Barcelona has been losing altitude. While Atleti collected all 18 points, Barça managed only 5.
The concern in Barcelona is real. They lost their last two home games to bottom-table teams Las Palmas and Leganes. If that’s not enough, their biggest star, Lamine Yamal, is injured and will be out for three to four weeks. Hansi Flick, the German coach who received so many praises at the start of the season, decided to give his players two days of rest before returning to training, to try to recover from the embarrassing loss to Leganes.
While the champion Real Madrid also fails to generate momentum (only a 3-3 draw on Saturday against Rayo Vallecano), Atletico keeps gaining momentum. So what exactly happened to the Colchoneros, who appear to be, at least currently, the highest quality team among the top three? At the start of the season, they struggled, losing 4-0 to Benfica and 3-1 to Lille in the Champions League. Yes, it took some time for Simeone’s new team to gel, but now it looks simply fantastic.
First, he changed the system. From the 5-3-2 of recent years, Simeone switched to a classic 4-4-2, with Rodrigo De Paul and 21-year-old Pablo Barrios holding the midfield. De Paul is finally bringing to the team what we saw from him in the Argentine national team – uncompromising fighting spirit, leadership, and also goals and assists.
Atletico paid 75 million euros to bring Julian Alvarez from Manchester City to partner with Antoine Griezmann in attack. In the first games, it was rough, but in recent months the two play like brothers. The Argentine already has 12 goals and Griezmann has 11 (including some masterpieces) and six assists.
The season’s stroke of genius was obviously the integration of Giuliano Simeone, the coach’s son. The former ball boy at the old Vicente Calderon stadium provides the team with tremendous speed on the right wing and, of course, the fighting spirit, his father Cholo’s trademark. Speaking of wing speed, both English Connor Gallagher who arrived from Chelsea and Marcos Llorente contribute their part in this matter.