Why Atletico Madrid Are Much More Than Just the Spanish Leicester City
Sometimes, the only way we can understand is to compare, as though two equally unlikely feats can only exist in the presence of each other.
As Leicester City stand on the verge of a remarkable Premier League title success, becoming the first new English champions since Nottingham Forest won the top-flight title in 1978, we’re left looking around and trying to grasp just where their inspiration came from.
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How did this happen? Which team are they copying? Do they know something we don’t?
And the football roulette machine eventually and inevitably stops at the feet of Atletico Madrid, infamously well-drilled, superb defensively and taking on the two biggest powerhouses in European football, Barcelona and Real Madrid, week after week and holding their own—even knocking holders Barca out of the UEFA Champions League in the quarter-finals.
Before the second leg of their semi-final against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, Atletico were able to make seven changes to their team and still beat Rayo Vallecano on Saturday—a fourth successive 1-0 win and a sixth win in a row without conceding a goal.
And again, the comparisons with Leicester are rife.
The Foxes won four games in a row 1-0 between March and April, and after relying on the attacking talents of PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez and top goalscorer Jamie Vardy—who scored in a Premier League-record 11 games in a row this season—it seems to be their defensive organisation that is driving them toward the title, which they would win by beating Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
Managers Diego Simeone and Claudio Ranieri both seem happy to allow the opposition to have the ball before striking devastatingly up the other end.
Journalist Jack Pitt-Brooke outlined the similarities in the teams in an article for the Independent, saying:
"In outline, though, there is a resemblance between the plans. Possession is not pursued but in fact willingly given up. They hold their shape, block out the opponents, wait for the space, then pounce.
That, in short, is how Atletico upset the odds to win the Spanish title two years ago, and how Leicester will do the same in England this season. It may even make Atletico champions of Europe, a historical achievement in the age of the superclubs.
There is more than one way to play football, and the best way to surprise people can be to swim against the tide.
"
All valid and correct arguments, but while nobody saw the Leicester story coming, to claim Atletico are just another version of them is to insult Simeone and his team.
They were, as Pitt-Brooke said, champions of Spain two years ago and stand on the verge of a second Champions League final in three years. Since Liverpool and AC Milan memorably played each other in the finals of 2005 and 2007, only Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have been able to repeat such a feat.
It isn’t a fluke Atletico’s name is mentioned among theirs, though, and the fact they have been able to keep alive both a Primera Liga and Champions League challenge into May tells you everything you need to know about their squad.
Without European football to contend with, and having been knocked out of the domestic cups early on, Ranieri has gone against his tinkering ways to name a solid, consistent Foxes XI more often than not, with only Vardy’s suspension forcing him to change his selection in recent weeks.
Yet Simeone is quite easily able to make seven changes to his league team in between the two legs of the Bayern Munich tie and still record a victory, albeit one in which he—or rather his staff given he was banned from the touchline—needed to call upon big hitters Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres from the bench, Greizmann scoring the winner 40 seconds later.
Add to this the fact Simeone’s Atletico are up against Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga while Leicester have watched all the traditional English powerhouses stumble in various fashions throughout the season.
This isn’t meant to be a criticism of Leicester or an attempt at downplaying what will be a stunning achievement and the greatest thing to happen in English football for generations but more to laud Atletico.
They’ve been doing this for the past few seasons, and in Simeone, they have a manager who packs such a punch there aren’t many weights left to conquer.
You could call Leicester the English Atletico if you wanted, but don’t call Atletico the Spanish Leicester.
They are so much more than that and have been for some time.
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