The ability to achieve is listed high in football. Beyond the tactical order and rigor, in big matches you always need a plus of offensive quality Let the balance tip when the moment of truth In this regard and in the irregularity of the relationship with the goal, Atlético de Madrid this season has found its burden, the weak point that leaves its qualification of the course in a simple approved, fulfilling his hurried third place in the league, with a Champions quarterfinal that knows little after the illusions created as a result of leaving Liverpool out and with a historic hit in the Copa del Rey against Cultural Leonesa.
It can also be debated whether the fault lies in some players with wet gunpowder, in sports planning and the absence of a top European ‘9’ that raises the scoring ability of a very good squad or if Diego Pablo Simeone’s approaches they have something to do. Criticism once again weighs on the Argentine coach, who evidently still has plenty of credit in a club that has changed from top to bottom in its long stage. There are many who think that he had to bet before on the talent of Joao Felix instead of the physical display of Héctor Herrera or Marcos Llorente, but it is an evaluation afterwards, once the differential ability of the Portuguese to change the game has been verified.
The truth is that the Portuguese midfielder and the reborn Yannick Carrasco, who has returned from Chinese football better than he left, seem right now the only players capable of changing the pace of the matches at Atlético, weighed down by the drought of Diego Costa and Álvaro Morata, who are seen more in pressure than in offensive work itself.
Since the signing of Serbian Ivan Saponjic is a ‘file x’, since he has played four minutes of play in two league matches, one hour in the cup debacle in León and his level is far from being in line with the demands of this Atlético , in Costa and Morata resides all the scoring weight of the team. The Spanish-Brazilian has lived a strange course and weighed down by his physical problems, he has barely converted 5 goals in 23 league games and 7 in the Champions League. In any case, and despite seeming far from that version of the Chelsea striker and his best times at Atlético, his work capacity has helped him to overcome Morata. The Madrilenian presents better numbers, as he adds 16 goals among all competitions, but it is tremendously irregular, as capable of seeing the door in six consecutive games as of not doing it in the next six.
Lack of depth and ineffective pressure
The records speak plainly of one of the least performing forwards one of the great teams in Europe, too important a slab in the fight for the Champions League. Without an important scoring support in the forward position, neither the midfielder, nor the wings, nor the center of the field stand out either for an important accomplishment contribution, beyond Joao Félix, with 9 goals, and Ángel Correa, author of 7 goals among all competitions and a significant drop in Lisbon due to its positive for Covid-19. In addition, at José Alvalade the two lane depth on the right foot like Kieran Trippier and Renan Lodi, who barely stepped on the opposite field, quite the opposite of their counterparts in Leipzig, Konrad Laimar and Angeliño, and confirmed a trend from more to less in the season.
In addition to the relationship with the goal, Leipzig beat Atlético with superior leg freshness, something that was not expected. Julian Nagelsmann’s team, a true tactical gibberish capable of mutating at any stage of the game, joined precision and speed in touch ball and emphatically surpassed an opponent forced to wear themselves out physically in a ineffective pressureAs Saúl and Koke clearly explained after the game, the impression was that of arriving a second late for each German pass.
Lack of goal, irregularity, lack of depth and ineffective pressure, perhaps the result of the absence of the physical background that Atlético did show in the League. Too many problems with a deceptive rival, better as a block than the names can say, and that dose of bad luck that seems to always accompany the rojiblancos in the Champions League, as Marciniak could well have indicated a penalty in a trip over Saúl in the German area and the shot from Adams that decided the duel could not have been poisoned when he touched the rear mattress.
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