Diego Simeone has absorbed all the pressure as Atleti got nearer and nearer to closing the gap between themselves and the big two in Spain. And then he moved on, he took that pressure, improved himself, and the team, and pushed forward. He wanted to be up there, not finishing third every year, but finishing top or second. He took what was an Atletico side similar to Arsenal in the way it stuttered at points during the season, and made it formidable. A famous man once said ‘If you ask to be loved, God will give you the opportunity to be loved. If you ask for Peace, God will give you the opportunity to create peace’ and so on. I don’t believe in God myself, but when Diego Simeone was given the opportunity to improve a player, he took it. Falcao left Spain in the summer of 2013 for Monaco and instead of sopping around and thinking ‘we have lost one of the best strikers in the World’, Simeone converted Diego Costa into one of the most wanted, and one of the best strikers on the planet. He has done it with his defence to. One defender leaves, another becomes brilliant, and it’s all down to this man, big Diego Simeone. He himself was a defensive midfielder so he has the perfect balance in his managerial career or attack and defence, and he’s shown it perfectly. Let’s take a look at how his side has changed over the last few years.
In the 2010/11 season, one season before Simeone took charge of the club, Atletico conceded 53 times in the league, that’s an average of 1.39 goals conceded per game. In comparison, Barcelona who won the league that year, conceded an average of 0.57 goals per game. Even Sporting Gijon, who finished 10th, 5 places below Atletico, conceded 1.1 goals per game. What is worth noting, is all of the 4 teams in front of them, conceded at least 0.3 goals less per game. If we jump to the 2012/13 season straight away, and go back to the in between years later, we see a huge difference.
Firstly let’s look at goals scored, and how similar the two seasons are in comparison. Atleti have produced some of the best strikers in the World consistently for the last 5 years or so. In the 2010/11 season, the Madrid side netted 62 goals, an average of 1.63 goals per game. In the 12/13 season, they netted 65 goals, an average of 1.71 goals per game. So, just three goals difference. But, now let’s look at the results that brought them in those two seasons. In the 10/11 season, Atleti won 17, drew 7 and lost 14. In the 12/13 season, Atleti won 23 games, drew 7 and lost 8. Average points per game – 10/11: 1.52, 12/13: 2.00. The reason for the difference in points, in wins, in losses? Defence.
In the 10/11 season, Quique Flores’ then side conceded 53 goals. In that season, Barcelona conceded 22 goals, and City rivals, Real Madrid, conceded 33. And despite finishing 5th that season, there were 8 teams with a better goals conceded to game ratio than Atletico Madrid. Let’s move quickly onto the 12/13 season, Diego Simeone had been at the club for over a season and a half then and his side conceded 31 times, an average of 0.81 per game, comparatively with the 10/11 average of 1.39 conceded per game. In that 2012/13 season, Barcelona won the league, but conceded more than Atleti, as did Real Madrid, and Valencia, and Real Sociedad, and Atheltic Bilbao, and Malaga and every single other team in the league. The defence was perfected.
Before I started writing this article, I researched for a week, finding all the stats around the internet. But, as I write it, I realised I didn’t need 1000’s of words to show the change in Atletico Madrid, the magnificent re surge of one of Spain’s finest teams in history. It started from Quique Flores coming in to manage a side that had fallen under the radar a small bit. Quique won the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup in his two year spell between 2009 and 2011, before Diego Simeone came in and won another UEFA Europa League and another UEFA Super Cup, as well as a Copa Del Rey. But time can only tell whether Atleti will win their first La Liga in almost two decades. They are not only closing in on the big two, they have formed the big three. And they’re fantastic.
Thanks for reading,
I’ve been Harry Robinson, find me on Twitter at @MrHarryRobinson