Diego Simeone learned something from Atletico Madrid’s loss to Espanyol, but the lesson is familiar | OneFootball

It was telling that Alexander Sorloth was on the bench, and even more so that Antoine Griezmann joined him. Diego Simeone, renowned for taking a number of weeks, if not months, to acclimatise his new signings, started the La Liga campaign five new faces in the line-up. Before last summer, only Marcos Llorente and Jan Oblak from this starting XI were playing for Atletico Madrid. Simeone seemed to be searching not only for adjustments, but something entirely different.

And he got it. With Thiago Almada and Alex Baena nominally behind Julian Alvarez, they played where they needed to. Touches were expensive, one or two, rarely more than three at a time. Never enough to get caught with it. Los Rojiblancos looked to be nimble, to unpick the lock, rather than go around it, or find a gap with which to pry it open.

It was patient, at times brilliant, and on occasion mesmerising. Facing a dogged opponent, Atletico refused to be chased. But it was more akin to hypnosis, or an altogether more cruel trick. Rather than the snapping of the fingers, it was the roar of the RCDE Stadium and the howl of one of the United States’ most intimidating attack dogs that awoke them 73 minutes into a dream start to the season.

Various turning points have been used to describe the game; the zenith of their riveting exchanges coming off the post by dint of Alvarez’s finish, the removal of Johnny Cardoso at the break, the introduction of Griezmann. The illusion of control disappeared the instant Miguel Rubio, a big man in the tallest of boxes, slipped past Jack Raspadori, who was neither quick nor nimble.

At which exact point Atletico went from being in front to holding a narrow lead isn’t essential, but the entire sequence of events was traumatic for its familiar nature. Although it is true that the body blows of defeats to Real Madrid and Barcelona winded Atletico last season, over a month-long period either side of those clashes, Los Rojiblancos picked up a singular point from games against Getafe, Espanyol and Las Palmas. Twice they led in those games, in all three, Atletico were at some point ‘in control’.

Captain Koke Resurreccion, for so long their best tool for gaining control, the gearstick, said after the match that Atletico lacked effectiveness in both boxes by way of explanation. While that is true to a degree, Espanyol landed more shots on Jan Oblak’s goal. When Atletico were forced to suffer, a term coined by Simeone, and a necessity in every good manager’s multiple choice of responses, Los Rojiblancos could neither play their way out of it nor battle through that period. Like last season.

“I think I learned something for myself,” Simeone told Diario AS after the match, as various journalists politely suggested that the substitutions did not have the desired impact. “I’ll take something away from it, but I learned something from what we saw. There’s something for me, you’ll see.”

Image via RCD Espanyol

El Cholo is often innocent of so much that he is accused of, but where he has modernised too much, is in the era of five substitutions. His management from the touchline is antsy, charged and intense – useful for his players’ focus. Last season Atletico frequently made changes early and usually exhausted all five changes, a tendency towards proactivity that unsettled his team as much as the opponent, in a constant search for matches, for adjustments.

The middle section of last season was defined by 16 stoppage time goals from Atletico, as they struck knockout blow after knockout blow in emphatic, thrilling fashion. As their strength waned in the latter half of the season, all too often, Atletico found themselves on the end of a sucker-punch. Be it the right changes, failing to capitalise on a lead, or an inability to get off the back foot, Atletico saw games slip away in just the same fashion as Sunday’s encounter against Espanyol did.

Fortunately, it is just the first game. Atletico can move to banish such a spectral defeat into accident territory. On the one hand, Simeone will have learned that he has an exciting and talented group of signings with which he can explore new directions of travel through games. On the other, it was a lesson repeated time and again last season.