Simeone tactics hold key to Atletico success

The big talk amongst football fans around the world is the rise of Atletico Madrid to reach the Champions League final, their first European cup finals since 1974. This means also that Diego Simeone is on the verge of becoming the club’s most successful coach in their history after setting a new record. Hard work and patience pays, indeed the former Argentina captain Simeone has finally attained admirable achievements with the Spanish side, a club in which he won the La Lige title as a player in 1996—their last league title since. Atletico Madrid also leads the Spanish league, three points ahead of giants and second-placed Real Madrid. Atletico is also four points better that the reigning champions Barcelona in third place with three rounds of matches remaining. Atletico seem to be the surprise team of the season and most improved in all aspects. They do not have big players who cost a lot of money but their coach Simeone and his tactics have been key to their success. Atletico Madrid is very much organised defensively and has good team work skills. They usually do not give space to opponents for penetration and this is how they have managed to contain threats of highly offensive opponents like Barcelona and Real Madrid especially in the domestic league. Fitness and technical ability of the players is also admirably high. They keep ball possession and work hard to regain possession as seen in their quarter final contests against Barcelona. People who are familiar with coaching professionals know that ball possession and regaining ball possession is one of the key attributes exhibited by coaches with License A and professional license. Another difficult part in professional football is defensive closure of space or closing gaps between defenders or players to deny opponents chance for penetration. But Atletico have been successful in this aspect for the entire season as they have been able to deny the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, among other potent strikers and midfielders to score against them. I’m sure many football managers will be able to learn from Simeone especially the likes of current Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola. They are both very good managers but what Pep needs to learn is defensive skills and tactics to help his team improve in future. Bayern is current reigning champions of the highly prized competition but suffered a 5-0 defeat to Spanish giants and record 9-time winners Real Madrid. For a long time, Bayern’s weakness has been in defence and perhaps this is where Pep could have made a difference to help them succeed again in the Champions League. All goals conceded against them were from defensive mistakes and lack of organisation at the back. Philip Lahm who shifted to midfield positions seems to have ruined his defensive abilities as he seems to have lost his usual zone marking skills. However, success is a step by step process and in life we keep learning from mistakes, we therefore expect Bayern to learn from mistakes. Real Madrid travelled to Munich with a 1-0 lead and promptly smoked the German powerhouse as they won the second leg 4-0 with two goals each from top scorer Ronaldo and defender Sergio Ramos. Atletico Madrid has not lost a game in the Champions League this season and waits to see whether they maintain momentum in the final against their city rivals. Both teams have already met four times this season, with Atletico winning once (1-0 on September 28), Real Madrid twice (both legs of their Copa del Rey semifinal) and the teams’ drew in their most recent game in March that ended in a 2-2 goal draw.