It seems clear that Diego Pablo Simeone has altered the basic principles of cholismo this season to make his way with variables that have especially diversified his attack. Atlético has 39 goals scored in the League, only one less than Real Madrid and seven behind Michel’s surprising Girona. Cholo’s men are the third highest scoring team in the League ahead of Barcelona or Valverde’s dizzying Athletic.
Cholismo 2023-24 scores more and defends worse
Simeone is moving the blanket of Tim, that Brazilian coach who stated that “football is a short blanket. If you cover your feet, you uncover your head, and if you cover your head, you uncover your feet…”. Now he seems to have chosen to cover his feet, which has caused him to uncover his head. Because if it is true that he is one of the top scorers, he has also stopped being an insurmountable team in defense. The rojiblancos have conceded 22 goals, far behind Real Madrid’s 11 or Las Palmas’ 17, and behind Athletic, Betis, Real Sociedad or Barça.
This loss of reliability occurs despite the improvement in performance of Oblak who has regained his solvency between the sticks, saving many points with his saves. However, Simeone has a serious problem, he no longer has anyone to defend him as he would like. He has a deficit of defensive pivots in the midfield, something that has warned the sports management, prioritizing the signing of a player for that position that has not yet arrived. And given this situation, he has modified the defense to a drawing with three center backs and two wingers with a center forward, playing during these months with his trio of center backs to overcome injuries and optimize the good moment of his defenders, where he has Savic, Giménez, Hermoso, Soyuncu, Azpilicueta, Reinildo and even a converted Witsel.
Many alternatives, but so far very irregular. For a start Reinildo has been injured throughout the start of the season and now that he can play, he is filming with his team, Mozambique, in the African Cup. The signings have not finished coming together because Simeone has not finished giving them opportunities. César Azpilicueta has enjoyed 949 in 16 League games, starting in nine of them, while the Turkish Caglar Soyuncu has barely enjoyed 110 in six games, appearing in the eleven in only one.
The two players who have shown themselves to be the most reliable so far are José María Giménez, who seems to have definitively overcome the plague of injuries that haunts him in recent seasons, and Mario Hermoso, who is offering his best performance since he arrived at the Atlético de Madrid. The third man is Stefan Savic, who at 32 years old is not quite getting the rhythm this season and is offering a lower performance than expected by the coach. The Montenegrin has participated in 10 games, totaling 724 minutes with nine starts, which confirms that he has Cholo’s trust and when he is able to play he bets on him from the start.
Several centers on the exit ramp
However, while Reinildo has just returned, and everything indicates that he will be the third starting center back along with Giménez and Hermoso, Atlético faces an uncertain future in defense. There is talk of the possible departure in this winter market of Soyuncu and Savic. Both have offers from Türkiye and could leave in January. The Ottoman, who arrived for free from Leicester, is assumed to end up playing for Fenerbahçe, who have sent emissaries to Madrid to negotiate the central defender’s possible departure. A feasible operation because the player wants to enjoy minutes to regain prominence and regain his starting role also in the Turkish team, especially ahead of this summer in which the European Championship is being played in Germany.
CD Lugo – Atlético de Madrid. / ELISEO TRIGO
Savic’s case is different. Atlético has half of its squad in the showcase, due to the financial difficulties it suffers, and the defender is one of them. But To open the exit door for him, the club demands 10 million euros as a transfer fee. Fenerbahçe has also sounded him out, but his salary is too high for the Ottomans and Atlético’s demands for a transfer payment complicate the operation. Despite everything, it seems that the future of Savic, who has an automatic renewal clause for playing a number of games, is still up in the air and he could leave in June after nine seasons at the mattress club.
And then there is the case of Mario Hermoso. Simeone is very satisfied with his performance, which has made him the most reliable player in the defensive axis. Mario has played 17 games, all as a starter, totaling 1,492 minutes. The problem that Cholo has encountered in keeping his boss is that the center-back ends his contract this summer and has not reached an agreement with the club for his renewal. In fact, He has rejected Atlético’s lower offer and has more interesting ones from the Premier to come. Hermoso would like to stay at the Metropolitano, but to do so Gil Marín must improve his proposal, especially now that he is going through the best moment of playing since he has been at Atlético and, probably, of his sporting career.
Simeone He has no one to defend him, at least in the way he wants. To the point that he has ended up recycling Witsel as the third central defender and insists Andrea Berta to comb the market looking for reliable defenders who will restore defensive solvency to an Atlético that is much more attractive to watch this season, but much more vulnerable defensively, something that goes against the nature of his coach.
2024-01-17 18:04:52
#Simeone #defense #Soyuncu #Savic #Mario #Hermoso #exit #ramp
