Atletico de Madrid and its Efficient Game to Beat Real Madrid

In the past year, I saw great moments of Atletico de Madrid. First Atleti beat Athletic Bilbao, really demolished it, an Athletic Bilbao that had amazed Europe, especially after beating Manchester United in Old Trafford. Then, I saw that team not to be bashing by Chelsea, last champion in European Champion League, and even destroyed it. Also the team made ​good games against Barcelona, not losing in the pitch, and beat Madrid in the Vicente Calderon Stadium, a milestone for the Atletico fans.

In these parties, I praised the order and the character of the team, the brand discipline and willingness to close spaces or pass lines. I noticed Atleti knew very well his script, waiting patiently for the right moment to score, and for which it had Falcao, Adrian, and Costa - and now Villa, a great signing for supporting Atleti tactical machinery. This past weekend, in the Santiago Bernabeu, facing Real Madrid, Atleti showed the same script, but in a very advanced version, almost perfect, blocking the attack of its opponent and threatening it permanently with scoring. This relationship between the defense so tight, so close to his goal, while having several chances to score is what disturbed me from a tactical point of view. I maintain that this does not refer to Real Madrid's performance, but rather the well learned script executed by Atletico de Madrid.

Constant pressure on bands: It is a complex art to combine an organized shape 1 4 4 2 and then attacking from how you defend. It needs, above all, a patient team, players that read the game quickly to anticipate the rival's movements and surprise it. Atleti's shape has faced distinct game systems and really good players like Messi , Ronaldo , Isco , Hazard, Benzema or Iniesta. Atleti does something very well to defend. It pushes the opponent 's attacking to play on the bands. In that place, the team win always, pressing and generating 3vs.2 or 3vs.1 disputes. In that space, Atleti has huge chances to win the ball given the aggressiveness of their players in the recovery, and the support that they receive from the sideline, which is another player in favor of defending . After recovering, the transition is quick and attackers are always ready to receive the ball. It seems to be very simple, but in modern football that is always a challenge that implies a lot of effort and intelligence. (See image to the left, inside circle a 3vs2 situation, typical in the entire game)

The balance and discipline: Diego Simeone has build a great team culture to balance the team according how the rival moves the ball in the pitch. The team moves like an orchestra making that the opposing team's movements turn to be extremely predictable. An tuned orchestra in this dimension generates that the opposing team loses its patience and becomes slow in its movements, with players that come to be obfuscated or lose easy balls, and even players more anxious give that rival team can score at any minute. In this kind of game, Gabi is the great director of this orchestra and Thiago the best complement, especially to clear and protect the ball. In offensive side, Costa and Villa have reinforced very much the Atleti's movements in the third attacking sector. (See picture on left. Inside Circle, Thiago driving the balance of the team over its left side, in the end of this play RM will need to go back over right, this happened in the whole of the game) .

The surprise and the goal: A team so tuned in recovery the ball, it becomes very dangerous when attacking. Atleti builds so good the attack from the place where it defends and recovers the ball. Two things we can say about this characteristic in the last game. First, after recovering the ball together sidelines, Atleti tends to attack through the same place. Atleti avoids crossing the ball. When the team recovers the ball, there are always, at least, two receptors: Villa and Costa. These attackers proposed quickly 1-2 situations against RM's defenders. Second, "the surprise" and his coronation: goal. Making the opponent's game predictable, Atleti achieved that Real Madrid's movements went to be slow, especially in the transition from its last line to midfield. Given this, Atleti was attentive to recover the ball in some RM's mistake. The victim of that kind of game was Di Maria and her executioner, who steals the ball, Luis Felipe. The Brazilian player went, aggressively, since Atleti's zone two to the border are between the zones 3 and 4. The Brazilian player read very good the play and run 20 meters to push on Di Maria, remarkable sense of anticipation. Then, once the ball stolen, Costa only had to define. (See image to the left side. Luis Felipe ran to pressure Di Maria, He run 25 mts from his zone 2 to stole the ball, this is a huge merit of the Brazilian player but shows the idea of anticipating and reading the game permanently)

Conclusion: Atletico de Madrid showed great strength and maturity as a team. Players displayed strong attitude, the same characteristic of Simeone, who was a classic Argentine 5, a kind of player that is able to control all the elements involved in a game, from the tactical to the emotional. Atletico de Madrid reflects the work of a team that is very well educated and trained to read the game. This is the great merit of the technical and tactical leadership that comes out from Diego Simeone .

Appendix: Here Below a summary of RM's performance. We can see in this image the effects that had on the RM the strategy designed by Diego Simeone. A Real Madrid that went and crashed every time with the two lines of four players.

Real Madrid's performance