The opening goal came from a corner after four minutes, the game exactly where they wanted it already. There was a lead to defend and so they did, an hour passing before the second arrived. Breaking from their own area after a corner, wide spaces suddenly appeared before them and an open goal did too, the shot curling in from 40 yards with the goalkeeper off his line. Two touches was all it took, the ultimate in efficiency. Then, in the last minute, another break and it was over. Five shots, three goals, a clean sheet: how very Atlético.
Er, no. Not really, not any more.
On Saturday Atlético Madrid prepared for their meeting with Manchester United by defeating Osasuna 3-0 at El Sadar. It was the day Liverpool faced Norwich so of course Luis Suárez scored, and from miles out. Jan Oblak made four times as many saves as his opposite number. Sime Vrsaljko got away with a hand in an opponent’s face. And Atlético, lined up in a 4-4-2, had 37% of possession but neither wanted nor needed more. “The little details went against us,” the Osasuna coach, Jagoba Arrasate, said.
This was “Classic Atlético”, one newspaper said but those two words were not the point; the truly key words were the other three they used: the, return and of. That was what made it so significant, why the central defender Stefan Savic insisted: “It was important for us to win again and do it with our DNA, which is to be strong at the back and effective up front.” But: is it? Still? And might Saturday’s win, their self-awakening, have been a one-off, another false dawn?
The question that hangs over Atlético as the Champions League returns is not just how they are but who they are. On Tuesday Ralf Rangnick talked about Atlético as an “emotional side” that “reflects the character of their manager”. Diego Simeone, he said, “has won trophies with a clear identity, with a recognisable playing style. I don’t think that has changed in the last years.” But that was already not entirely true and now it is even less the case.
At times this can feel like a team suffering an identity crisis.
Atlético are a side that has periodically evolved one way and then back again, as if wanting to return to what they know, to revert to type. There have been shifts, glimpses of doubts about what they want to be, hints that players and manager do not always reach the same conclusion or believe in the same things. Last season they certainly did not play as they had in previous campaigns, Suárez the catalyst for them occupying different positions. They did not even play the same way at the start of the season as they did at the end, the season’s close almost absurdly epic.
This season, though, has been a step again, deeper into uncertainty. All those things you think you know about them, all those assumptions, the lines that are endlessly repeated: forget them. Certainly don’t trust them. Savic might will them to be real, Simeone too, but the truth is different. Osasuna was their first clean sheet away all season. Three days later they were beaten at home by Levante, who are bottom. It was their 10th defeat but at least it was 1-0. In the previous four matches the team whose results once read like binary code ran: 4-3, 4-2, 3-2 and 2-2.
That 4-2 is a loss at Barcelona when Atlético took an early lead. The 4-3 and 3-2 are consecutive last-minute comebacks at home, against Valencia and Getafe respectively, exhilarating evenings that also revealed flaws, the promise of revival proving fleeting. Both were followed by defeats and it is not just that they are losing, it is the way it is happening.
For so long defined by their defence – a team that are tough, organised, ultra-competitive – Atlético are not good at the things Atlético are supposed to be good at. They have had twice as many 2-2 draws as 1-0 wins. They have already conceded more than in any of the 10 seasons under Simeone, seemingly always on edge even when they win. In Europe, they were beaten 3-2 by Liverpool, having come back from 2-0 down, and progressed on the final day with just their second win, goals in the 90th and 92nd minutes finally seeing them through in Porto. In Milan they had needed a 97th-minute penalty.
No longer occupying a Champions League place, domestically last season’s champions are fifth, 15 points off the top.
“You start to think: ‘Why is this happening to us?’” Ángel Correa admitted. “So why is it?” he was asked, to which he replied: “I don’t know. I couldn’t explain it but it’s a reality.”
Marcos Llorente, their outstanding player last season from midfield, has been injured and, when he has played, has often done so at full-back. Savic and José Mariá Giménez have been able to play together less than a third of the campaign, the former insisting: “We have been affected by injuries, which have made it harder for the manager to choose a system.” Oblak looks human, his save percentage plummeting. Antoine Griezmann has been injured. Suárez is a year older, the revenge that fuelled him running lower now, the astonishing effectiveness unsustainable. Koke has not reached the level he was at last season. Kieran Trippier has gone. “His exit has changed us for sure,” Savic admitted.
But part of the problem may be exactly that: that they are champions. They then signed Rodrigo De Paul, Griezmann and Matheus Cunha, many saying this was the best squad they had had, declaring them favourites. That was probably an exaggeration anyway but it changes things, even if only at some subconscious level. When it comes to group management too, and perhaps at mechanical level. From playing against the power they had to administer abundance: the team has changed 32 times in 34 games. “For a team like Atlético it’s not easy to be champions,” Simeone said.
“We created expectations and when the results didn’t arrive that hit us hard,” Correa told Marca.
The margins are sometimes fine and fortune plays a part – last season, it is worth recalling, they were on edge all the way to the line, suffering and surviving Simeone talking about them entering the Suárez Zone. The underlying statistics are also not as bad as the results but there is something not right, something missing –an edge, a sense of cause, a decisiveness. “We’ve conceded the fewest shots but it felt like every shot went in,” Savic said. “There was also a relaxation defensively.” Simeone referred to a “lack of attention”.
“When you win the league, lots of teams relax because they say ‘well, it’s happened’,” the defender Giménez said. “Four new players came and the team relaxes a bit. Last season, games started and we would bite. This year, I see a slight relaxation in comparison. We were first to the challenges, the loose balls, we were aggressive in the areas, we defended games to the end. This year, that wasn’t happening. Why? Because we have a great team, but a great team is built on results too.”
The results were not right, the route to them no longer clear, until Saturday offered a way back to how they were. “We’re united. But it’s not words; it’s bodies that show that unity best, and in Pamplona we saw it. I have no doubt we’re on the right path,” Savic insisted. “I cling to the search for the team spirit we saw the other day,” Simeone said. “I hope we have that spirit tomorrow because, when we have that, we compete well.”
