Atletico Madrid's Struggles at Celta Vigo Help Explain Interest in Santi Cazorla

The saying has it that after the Lord Mayor’s show comes the dustcart, and so it proved for Atletico Madrid this weekend.

Fresh from their spectacular 4-0 thumping of Real Madrid, Atletico were sent crashing back to earth following their lacklustre display and fully-deserved defeat in Galicia against Celta Vigo. As poor as they had been brilliant the week before, as apathetic as they had been motivated, this was a seemingly over-confident Atletico side that gave second best against a Celta Vigo team that from the start looked hungrier, more focused—and quite simply wanted it more.

It is important to understand why this happened. A large part of Atletico Madrid’s game plan and success stems from their passion and commitment. There isn’t any great secret about what makes Diego Simeone’s sides so difficult to beat, and hard work and attention to detail feature very close to the very top of the demands made on the players by the Argentinian coach.

There was precious little sign of those attributes at the Balaidos on Sunday night but, before dishing out all the brickbats to the players, it has to be said that this wasn’t exactly Simeone’s finest hour either. This was fundamentally the wrong selection of a side.

Before Sunday’s game Antoine Griezmann, Fernando Torres and Mario Mandzukic had played together this season for a grand total of seven minutes, and it showed when they were suddenly thrown together from the start.

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Putting the three of them in the same line-up means you lose pressure on the ball. Placing Griezmann as one of four in midfield when defending, and predominantly wide on the right when attacking, did not work.

The plan was hatched on the basis that the two men up front would have too much for the slow Celta central defenders but what we got instead of a pressured, direct game was rushed football. For a man like Simeone, for whom detail is normally so important, the lack of coordination in the pressure applied by Torres and Mandzukic made life easy for the Celta defence, who made the most of the situation by doing what they like most—which is to mount attacks from the back.

The ball went forward too quickly without a calculated plan or much idea. Everyone knew that Koke and Arda Turan would be missing from Atletico’s line-up for this game; what they didn’t realise is how much they would be missed.

With Raul Garcia also out through suspension, putting the three men up front from the start also meant that Simeone drastically reduced his options of changing things with the help of his subs bench.

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Torres was eventually replaced and Mandzukic was left alone up front with Griezmann in a more familiar role tucked in behind him. The system looked better but unfortunately by that time the dynamic of the game had changed permanently, with Celta playing really well and Atletico barely able to string three passes together.

And with such inertia in evidence when Koke and Arda Turan are absent, it’s hardly surprising that there is much talk at the moment of a move to the Vicente Calderon for Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla—who has just a year-and-a-half left on his contract.

Atletico seem assured that they can convince the little Asturian wizard to return to Spain and certainly he could fit in well at the Vicente Calderon. It does not mean he will sign for Atletico, but it does mean that Atletico will surely try to poach him this summer.

For the time being, a bad day at the office for all concerned and, while the defeat will have damaged Atletico’s chances of retaining the title, it does not yet qualify as a fatal blow to their chances.

Any further slip ups, however, could well have them looking over their shoulders and if they allow Valencia to creep in above them into third place then it will certainly—at least from a league point of view—be perceived as a failure.