Breaking Down the Clash of Styles Between Diego Simeone and Carlo Ancelotti

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone and his Real Madrid counterpart, Carlo Ancelotti, will lock horns for the eighth time this season when they meet on Wednesday in the second leg of the clubs’ Champions League quarter-final tie.

They are two very different coaches, whose clash of styles, in both their approach to leadership and in the football their teams play, has added an interesting dimension to recent fixtures between the cross-city rivals.

Simeone ticked all the boxes when he was appointed as Atletico’s new coach in December 2011.

The club needed a unifying force—someone capable of whipping the squad into shape and forging a strong and determined side. According to Bleacher Report columnist Guillem Balague, writing in The Telegraph, Atletico president Enrique Cerezo described their needs thus:

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When we were looking for a new coach, we asked ourselves: "Who do you bring in?" The answer was someone who was revulsivo—someone who could stimulate everyone, someone who could have an impact on the fans and the players. Who better to do that than someone whose name was sung every week by the fans? So we decided to go for Simeone.

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The Argentinian, whose strong relationship with the supporters had been forged over two spells at the club as a player, quickly got to work. He is a born leader—“Leadership is something you’ve got or you haven’t, he said in the aforementioned Balague piece—and swiftly formed a group of players willing to put everything on the line for both him and the club.

He created a side who play strong, aggressive and purposeful football. Atletico are now the embodiment of their coach.

The sort of coach who, as per Reuters, invites the survivor of an ETA bomb attack to give a motivational talk to his players. The kind of guy who shares his success with his coaching staff:

And the kind of man who, as per BBC Sport, gives thanks to the mothers of his players for giving birth to men with "balls this big."

His passion shines through in the manner in which he stalks the touchlines, intensely living each and every minute of each and every match.

But underneath his fervent exterior lies a thoughtful and meticulous planner who hones in on the weaknesses of his side’s opponents and formulates plans to ruthlessly expose them.

It is not by accident that Atletico have reached the final of a knockout competition in each of Simeone’s three years at the helm.

Take the 4-0 derby victory at the Vicente Calderon in February. Atletico consistently created overloads in wide areas, with Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic pulling out to the flanks to link with the wide midfielders and the on-rushing full-backs.

All four of their goals came from crosses into the area after neat combination play had released players in behind out wide.

“Absolutely everything the coach told us would happen if we applied his tactics did happen,” midfielder Tiago noted afterwards, as per Graham Hunter of ESPN FC.

This also includes Atletico’s incredible efficiency from dead-ball situations. The variety of their routines, as detailed by the tactics blog 13 Steps, and the quality of Gabi and Koke’s deliveries have seen them score 28 goals from set pieces this season—13 more than any other side in La Liga, as per WhoScored.com.

“There is no normal team, apart from the best in the world, that doesn’t need to work hard on its set plays in training,” Simeone told ESPN Brazil (h/t David F. Sanchidrian of AS) last year. “And if you train dead-ball situations well, you have a better chance.”

To the north of the city centre lies another coach who in many ways is ideally suited to the job he currently occupies. Ancelotti has worked under some of the most success-hungry owners in world football—Silvio Berlusconi, Roman Abramovich, Nasser Al-Khelaifi—and is used to dealing with the big egos of star players.

And those attributes have served him well at Real Madrid, where he works under Florentino Perez and with players such as Cristiano Ronaldo.

The club needed a calm hand to step in and ease the tensions that had accumulated over the three years of Jose Mourinho’s reign.

The squad was split, as Ancelotti explained to So Foot (h/t The Daily Mail) last October.

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Before I arrived I was aware that there were lots of problems in the dressing room—problems between some players and Mourinho. Everything that happened in private would end up in the papers the next day. Ever since I arrived, there hasn’t been one fight in the dressing room.

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And Madrid’s public image needed softening after the "us against them" narrative that had been gladly fostered by Mourinho and his retinue of potty-mouthed paranoids.

“Whenever we play away in La Liga, we no longer feel as though people hate us as they did when Mourinho was in charge,” defender Pepe told Cadena Cope radio (h/t Marca) in March. “We’ve cleaned up our image.”

While Mourinho specialised in creating and publicising problems that once overcome would strengthen his position, Ancelotti avoids confrontation and privately works on solutions to any issues that arise.

His public demeanour is that of a confident and even-tempered individual who trusts in his own ability and that of his players.

“I have a lot of experience,” he said in March, as per Tim Hanlon of Reuters, following criticism that he was perhaps a little soft on his players. “I have been coaching for many years and with this ‘weak’ arm of mine I have managed to win three Champions Leagues.”

Simeone is working at an inherent financial disadvantage to both Madrid and Barcelona, and has to harness the power of the collective in order to overcome it. Ancelotti, on the other hand, can afford to put faith in the quality of his star players. The rest of the team is constructed to provide them with a platform to perform.

Gareth Bale has to do more tracking back than he is accustomed to in order to allow Ronaldo the freedom to conserve his energy up top. Isco has worked very hard on the defensive side of his game to provide greater protection for Toni Kroos.

These checks and balances have been evident throughout Ancelotti’s coaching career.

In his Milan side, Andrea Pirlo was deployed as a deep-lying playmaker but was often flanked by two bodyguards in Gennaro Gattuso and Massimo Ambrosini. Ahead, Kaka was given freedom to work the full width of the pitch in search of space in which to receive the ball and run at opposition defences.

The Italian specialises in finding solutions to the accumulation of big-name players that has been a hallmark of many of the clubs he has coached.

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Carlo Ancelotti vs. Diego Simeone, Early 90s Edition: http://t.co/D3myv48NcN pic.twitter.com/NFSsTXQCQe

— B/R Football (@br_football) May 23, 2014"

The circumstances of their careers to date have been very different, but there is still a clear distinction in approach and personality between the two coaches who will square off in the Bernabeu on Wednesday.

Simeone’s passionate exterior and meticulous off-field planning have made him the perfect coach for Atletico, while Ancelotti’s conciliatory approach has proved an ideal fit for Madrid.

Which style will prevail with a place in the last four of the Champions League at stake?

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