Forget Barcelona,Forget Real Madrid, Can Atletico turn the Liga's table? Updated!

Last season, La Liga was two horses’ poor competition. Regardless of the validity of the claims that La Liga was not competitive enough last season, no one can argue that Barcelona and Real Madrid dominated the first two seats all the way leaving the rest chucking in the dust behind. 

This season there are suggestions that the case will keep being the same. Is there any chance for a third team to catch the big two by surprise? In fact I think there are three teams that may collectively contribute in delivering the title for one of them by taking points from the big two and winning enough matches to threaten the imminent expectation to see one of the two big Rivals on La liga throne. While Sevilla is always a dangerous team to play against and Vallencia is proving to be a more rounded team after freeing themselves from Villa-Silva dependency, Atletico Madrid is the club that may prove all doubters wrong. 

I can hear La liga fans and followers laughing out loudly now. Some may sympathize with me for not learning the lesson yet. Atletico’s same old story: Big expectations in the summer and struggling during the season. Well, I can tell you that I avoided putting any bets on Atletico since Messi was born. But we can’t ignore that they actually started to win titles already. They already won two titles in 2009 and one of the two was few weeks ago against Inter, the champions’ league champions. 

That’s not all. Atletico Madrid transfers this summer were –shockingly- amazing! No doubt that last season, Atletico’s troubles came from the defense weaknesses. They have an offense line of Aguero and Forlan, need to say more? This summer they worked perfectly to strengthen the team. The result is an extremely balanced squad with sufficient quality in each and every line.

Atletico fans can be proud for having in David De Gea (19, Spain) and Sergio Asenjo (21, Spain), two of the most promising keepers not only in Spain but across Europe. 

To Shield the keepers, Atletico upgraded the defense this summer, adding Filipe Luis and Diego Godin. Two excellent defenders with Godin filling the basic weakness their defense suffered at its core. They will join a defense panel including Alvaro Dominguez, one of the most promising defenders in Spain, Tomáš Ujfaluši the renovated right back after disastrous performance as a center back, Antonio Lopez the skillful captain, and both Perea and Juanito. This is not a defense to overlook. 

In the midfield, they added Fran Merida and kept Thiago to complete a mix of youth and experience including Assuncao, Mario Suarez, Ignacio Camacho, Raul Garcia, Simao, and Reyes, serving behind one of the most lethal offense duets in Aguero, and Forlan with Diego Costa as their backup.

There are no reasons to underestimate this team. The only point to take against them is the same reason why the likes of Valencia and Sevilla failed to threaten Barcelona and Real Madrid last season: consistency. 

This week they will have the chance to send the message to the liga contenders. Atletico started their season perfectly winning the Supercup against Inter before scoring 4 times against Gijon and adding another win 1-2 away against Athletic Bilbao. Their game against Aris in Greece was disappointing and maybe they already had the match against Barcelona in mind. They will be more focused this time and will have a point to prove. They host Barcelona in a match where it is not easy to decide who will be the favorite. Atletico always caused problems to Barcelona and they were the only team to defeat Barcelona last season in the league. It will be shocking for their fans if their club fails to show their quality again this time. 

There are doubts that Ujfaluši may not be available which will force Flores to use Valera there or move Perea to the right and use Godin and Domingues in the center with Fillipe or Lopez on the left.

Against Panathinaikos the team no doubt boosted the moral of the fans after a disappointing game against Hercules. No doubt Panathinaikos were shockingly awful, but that takes no credit away from the Barca players. Against Atletico, they will face their biggest test this season. In this game, we will start to see Pep actual thoughts about his selection and tactics, especially for the champions’ league.

On Football Mood Twitter, I posted this Video about Former Barcelona defender Albert Ferrer's amazing analysis after Hercules game. I suggest that you forget about the other comments, putting words in Pep mouth and focus on Ferrer’s presentation. We already warned that this will be the case this season and the coaches are not taking time to figure that unless if Barcelona upgrade their offense dynamics they will keep being containable offense wise as a team –at least as long as no individual skills do the trick and save the team.

Systematically it’s clear –as Hercules coach put it and Ferrer explained, crowd the center and force Barcelona to play on the flanks, they have no players to get advantage of crosses anyway. At least crosses will cause much less troubles than Messi and co dancing through the center –Panathinaikos episode. It doesn’t matter who starts in the selection and who is benched. When things get tricky, Offense –in the box- need the support of the midfielders who are capable to cause damage in the Area A.K.A Keita, Busquets, and Pique. Case closed.

Against Atletico, Barcelona will face a team that will use two center backs – Perea , Godin -and two fullbacks who can also play as center backs – Ujfaluši, Dominguez. If the four player are available for Atletico, Barcelona will have to deal with four center backs closing the Area, Assuncao and Thiago in front of that line and four players applying high pressure to damage Barcelona’s buildup in the caliber of Reyes, Simao, Forlan, and Aguero. A complicated homework for Pep and a big challenge for the players.

Pep need to make sure the team keeps the game under their control. Using both Iniesta and Keita can lead to two good things:

1) More dominance in the midfield
2) Less contribution for Messi in the buildup and giving him the chance to completely focus on linking with Villa.

In the other hand, Iniesta, Messi, and Villa masters one touch game more than Pedro, Messi, Villa (though Pedro is also a quality there). I think one of the big defects of Atletico’s defense is Ujfaluši and Perea’s inability to read and catch the fast one touch movement. Barcelona players need to focus on that if they want to score. The presence of Keita add a needed dimension as his runs to the box will continuously threaten Atletico’s defense and may force the fullbacks to the flanks to prevent crosses. That will stretch their defense and create the spaces needed in the center.

Defensively, Abidal need to be a bit conservative at the beginning of the match and support Puyol and Pique to avoid getting caught out of position when Atletico attack the spaces (they have players perfectly fit to do so).

The biggest concern for Barcelona is Atletico’s quality in putting pressure when they lose possession. Causing troubles for Barcelona there will force Xavi deep and withdraw Messi and Iniesta away from Atletico’s area. Barcelona will lose lot of their offense urgency if that happens. That’s one of the reasons why I prefer having Mascherano as a holding midfielder with Busquets playing Keita’s role.

Mascherano is a quality when it comes to covering space and his positioning sense is exceptional. Barcelona needs that against Atletico’s pace-y offense. Busquets in the other hand is better than Keita in buildup and he can –with Pique, Mascherano and Xavi move the ball forward smoothly and fast. Busquets will need to weigh his defense/offense contribution based on Atletico’s performance. He still can do the Keita Chaos when he runs into the opponent’s Area.

But the question is: Is Mascherano ready and well adapted to the team so he starts such a big match?

Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Mascherano, Xavi, Busquets, Messi, Villa, Iniesta.

Lot will depend on the players form at the given day and Pep's magic. But there is a question to ask every time Atletico plays: What kind of Atletico will we see tomorrow? The supercup winners or the inconsistency masters?

Posted by Ramzi on 06:50. Filed under Atletico, Barcelona, Football, Liga, Ramzi . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0