For a counter-attacking legend like Diego Pablo Simeone, this new style of football, based on rapid and vertical transitions, is a kind of paradise. The numbers from the last two seasons are revealing in this regard: 70 goals scored in both, a figure only surpassed in the 13-14 campaign, in which Simeone won his first league title.
Few passes are possible that break the lines, a perfect paradigm for a coach who often says that his team plays “to get the ball as quickly as possible to the number nine or my best player”. That best player is Antoine Griezmann, capable, at his best, of creating chances and scoring goals in equal measure. The same virtues as Julián Alvarez, the brand new signing who will debut tonight at the Metropolitano against Girona (21.30, Movistar). A high-level test to see how Simeone and both players resolve their coupling. Alvarez has played in games with City in which he has absolute control of the ball, with little space to run, and he has also had to cope with that frenetic back and forth that is so typical of the Premier League.
It remains to be seen whether the search for Griezmann or Alvarez, or both equally, will prevail as offensive references. Until now, Griezmann was the undisputed flagship of Atlético’s project and Alvarez has arrived with the idea of the club and the coach himself that he will take over sooner or later. The coach sees differences between the bet that João Félix was and that of his compatriot, who he has already directly linked to Atlético’s DNA.
In any case, Simeone has more than enough material for the Eden that is the game of dizzying transitions, for which the doubt also arises as to whether he will dare to line up Griezmann, Alvarez and Sorloth at the same time. During the pre-season, the Argentine coach had in mind the mould, in attack, of a double attacking midfielder with the Argentine and the Frenchman, and with Sorloth as the head of the area. However, doubts are already looming over the Norwegian’s starting position after he was substituted by Correa at half-time of the match against Villarreal after scoring the goal that tied the score at two. The Norwegian was accurate with the only ball that came to him in good condition. Simeone justified his decision by saying that he had intervened little in the game.
The change was, to say the least, strange for a coach who, in many of the games he loses, talks about being forceful and the comment about Álvaro Morata’s figure was floating around among the coaching staff that he needed three or four chances to score a goal. Sorloth was deactivated at La Cerámica without being given the chance to correct, at least in the first quarter of an hour of the second half, this lack of prominence in attacking play. The change did not work out well for Cholo because it lowered Sorloth’s morale as a player signed to score goals and the team flattened without him. Fulfilling the objective for which he was signed was not enough for Sorloth in Vila-real.
The tests that Cholo has carried out this week leave the Scandinavian on the bench for tonight. And the coach’s statements yesterday do not point to his starting role either. “I have no doubt that the players can always combine. The issue is to balance, compensate, to try to make sure that the team is prepared to be able to sustain the characteristics of some players, but I am more excited than anyone about the possibility of the idea of Griezmann-Sorloth-Julián-Correa, Sorloth-Julián-Griezmann, Riquelme-Sorloth…”, explained Simeone.
Balance has always been an obsession for Simeone, but after the 43 goals conceded last season, even more so. Last season he somewhat stopped the bleeding with a 5-4-1 defensive formation. However, last week against Villarreal, the same defensive weakness came to the surface, as did the feeling that the team is struggling to sustain this style of play. It is paradoxical that it is the defensive aspect that prevents Simeone from fully enjoying the paradise that the dominant approach in today’s football offers him in attack. For this reason, Sorloth is not guaranteed a starting position at the moment.
Lenglet because the salary limit did not allow Hancko to be registered
Atlético had the money to sign centre-back David Hancko (Feyenoord) for around 35 million euros, but could not register him because they only had a margin of just one million euros in their salary cap, set at 300 million euros. Therefore, the chosen player was Clement Lenglet, for whom they will pay Barça a total of four million euros for a one-year loan. The departure of Samu to Porto (15 million euros for 50% of the transfer), that of Mouriño and a third player (Vermeeren, the most likely) make the Lenglet operation possible.
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