Atlético de Madrid’s first visit to the Ciutat de València in three years ended in a goalless draw, the Rojiblancos’ first such result this season.
Diego Simeone rotated heavily amid growing fitness concerns within his 18-player squad. The coach left Saturday’s game with three new worries: Alexander Sørloth was hospitalized with a head injury, while both Pablo Barrios and Marcos Llorente suffered suspected muscle pulls in the second half. Atleti visit Real Betis in a Copa del Rey quarterfinal in five
days.
The result Saturday extends Atleti’s rancid run of results at Levante (one win from the past six visits in LaLiga) and keeps the Rojiblancos only three points ahead of Villarreal for third place.
Let’s dive into some takeaways:
The Simeone-Alemany war has no winners and a lot of losers
Late on Saturday, news broke that Atlético had won the race to sign Atalanta’s star forward Ademola Lookman. This followed reports that Atleti were in contact with Al-Hilal for their striker Marcos Leonardo, who could arrive on loan with a €40 million option to buy in the summer.
It’s about time.
Cholo Simeone has spent most of January pleading publicly for new signings to paper the cracks left from the summer’s disastrous €176 million outlay. Sporting director Mateu Alemany and chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil have been unmoved. Weeks after they agreed to sell Javi Galán, Conor Gallagher and Giacomo Raspadori, it appears that only a full-blown squad crisis convinced them to act.
“Sometimes things happen in the first minute, and some (moves) happen at the end,” Alemany told DAZN on Saturday. “We have ideas that we’ve coordinated with the coaching staff. If there is a player or players who fit the criteria set by the boss and have the level to play for Atleti, a high level, then they will be signed.”
That does absolutely nothing to sate Simeone, who sarcastically quipped that Atlético’s squad depth was “good, very good” to the same broadcaster after the final whistle. As of now, Atleti will take just 15 first-team players to La Cartuja on Thursday.
“We have always had a plan,” Alemany said on DAZN. “The coach draws up what he has in his head, what he needs, and we want to give him the best squad. We all want it: the coach, the technical staff, the sporting director, the board of directors. We all want the same thing.”
As the public face of the (outgoing) board, Alemany can get on TV and state Atleti’s selectiveness, that “only high-level players will come to Atlético de Madrid,” that everyone at the club wants a winning team, until he’s blue in the face. The actions behind the scenes paint a different picture. All month, Gil and Alemany have done next to nothing to back the legendary coach, who publicly scoffed last week at Alemany’s suggestion that academy players could fill out the squad if suitable signings don’t arrive.
It gives one the impression of a toxic vibe emanating from the club in the weeks before Apollo Sports Capital ascends to majority ownership. The toxicity may well be playing itself out on the pitch, where a shorthanded squad stumbled in a shock home loss to Bodø/Glimt before Saturday’s ugly stalemate.
Pulling off a couple signings before the winter window shuts Monday would lift spirits. But I wouldn’t disagree if you argued that the damage to the squad — and to Simeone’s position — has been done.
Giuliano’s absence deeply felt
But let’s talk about the football that the team on the pitch played Saturday. Simeone made six changes from the side that lost to Bodø/Glimt on Wednesday. He reintroduced Clément Lenglet, Nahuel Molina and Robin Le Normand, while he pushed Llorente into midfield and moved Thiago Almada up the pitch as a second forward behind Sørloth.
Lenglet lasted 45 minutes after he picked up a yellow card for a ridiculous challenge midway through the first half. Almada created zero chances and didn’t last an hour. Molina and Le Normand played the entire 90 minutes; Le Normand was a little shaky positionally but won six of seven aerial duels, while Molina was indeed on the pitch.
Any Atlético move down the right side of the pitch failed without the maniacal presence of Giuliano Simeone. Say what you will about Giuliano’s unpolished technique and his lack of goalscoring — he is absolutely essential to how this team progresses the ball into the penalty area.
More than forty percent of Atleti’s attacks in LaLiga come down their right side. Only Michael Olise and Vinícius Júnior have generated more assists following a ball carry since the Club World Cup last summer. When Atleti need to break lines, they’re looking for Giuliano — who has an irrepressible and irreplaceable combination of motor and velocity.
In a dismal second half at the Ciutat de València, Atleti attempted fewer passes in the opposition half than Levante (99 to 91) and managed only eight penalty-area touches. The Rojiblancos completed four dribbles in the entire game. Without Giuliano’s runs in behind, they had no chance to unlock a disciplined low block that got stronger as the game moved along; Atleti accrued only four shots on target and 0.90 expected goals against the team sitting 19th in the table.
Jano’s debut
With a sixth substitution in his back pocket amid Sørloth’s head injury, Simeone rolled the dice one last time on 73 minutes to introduce Atlético Madrileño midfielder Jano Monserrate for his official debut in LaLiga.
Jano, the Spain under-19 international, was a preseason lineup fixture, and he has been around the first team in training and in matchday squads throughout the season. The 20-year-old largely has been a substitute in his first season under Madrileño boss Fernando Torres; he has made 18 appearances (11 from the bench) in Primera Federación, where he’s scored two goals.
It can be difficult to evaluate a young, inexperienced player shoehorned into action for roughly 20 minutes of a league match in late January. What the stats show is that Jano won both of his attempted tackles and completed four of his five passes. He showed a couple nice touches in the Levante half.
What we’ve also seen in recent years under Simeone is that eventual first-team fixtures can emerge from humble beginnings. Barrios got his debut in a loss at Cádiz, during the abysmal opening weeks of the 2022/23 season; in April of that year, Giuliano had come on for a couple minutes in a non-descript home draw with Granada, as Atleti’s failed title defense wrapped up.
Alemany has been insistent that academy players will factor into the planning for future squads. Only time will tell if the left-footed Jano is the next one to break through.
