Diego Simeone Should Trust in Youth Talent for Atletico Madrid Midfield Roles
As Diego Simeone put together his squad for the upcoming Liga campaign over the summer, already knowing at that point he intended to shift Koke from the left into the centre, he must have given plenty of thought to how to restructure his midfield.
With Arda Turan departing for league winners Barcelona and Koke switching infield, both wide portions of the midfield quartet needed to be replaced.
They should be upgraded if possible in an attacking sense, but without losing any of the tactical and combative elements which make this Atleti side work.
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Against Shanghai SIPG, Atleti's last friendly of their time in Asia before returning to Spain, another glimpse was shown that Simeone has exactly what he needs in his youthful charges to make the system work, seamlessly improving the style without losing any defensive edge.
Arda and Koke
With the likes of Tiago and Gabi pulling both strings and opposition shirts in the centre of the park last year, Koke and Turan were the creative threats—not necessarily from out wide all the time but from a wider starting point, drifting infield to get involved in possession play and joining midfield to attack whenever possible.
The fluid yet compact midfield alignment of Simeone's team inevitably meant they had crowded central areas at times, by design, as they fought to win back the ball quickly, aggressively and in areas where the likes of Antoine Griezmann could quickly be set away to counter-attack.
Turan was the dribbler, the channel-runner, the man who could commit defences one-on-one and open up spaces. Koke the pass master, the central cog to the team who simply happened to not play centrally.
What both of them also offered was nonstop work rate, commitment to tackling and tracking opponents, and a total willingness to do the off-the-ball work demanded of them by Simeone.
As far as young attacking talents go at Atleti, they couldn't have had more talented yet determined role models to look up to than this pairing. Talent will get you noticed, but with Simeone especially, mentality will get you involved.
3 Young Guns
Early on this summer, Turan left the Vicente Calderon for the Camp Nou, so it has been intriguing to watch the transfers and team develop over the past few weeks to see how Simeone approached and solved the midfield riddle.
As he told Marca.com last season, without Arda and Koke, the team lacks creativity.
Playing centrally, Koke should be more involved of course, but there would still be additional traits needed in the wider areas—and Atletico have had some of them at their disposal all along.
Yannick Ferreira Carrasco has been added to the squad. Direct and with good acceleration, the dribble fanatic will be a natural and regular outlet down the left flank for Atleti this season.
Opposite him, Saul Niguez and Oliver Torres are fantastic options for Simeone and his team to choose from.
Torres—on loan last year at Porto—is a natural No. 10, but Atletico don't play with that sort of playmaker. Instead, as he was deployed against Shanghai SIPG, Torres can start from the right, drift infield and act as a receiving station for the ball from the likes of Koke or Tiago in the middle.
Quick feet, a low centre of gravity and great vision all make Torres a threat as he moves into the final third, but he has also shown during pre-season an appreciation for the need to battle, work back into position when out of possession and press opposition teams with great intensity.
All of that will be needed for him to regularly feature this year—which, in technical terms, he is certainly good enough to do. He can, of course, do the same from the opposite side of midfield.
Saul needs no introduction to regular Atleti watchers at this point. Versatile, aggressive and composed on the ball, he offers cover right down the spine of the team while probably being an inverse option of Koke from last season—he'll play on the right side of the quartet and tuck in whenever possible.
Wise Heads
A usual quartet last season of Turan, Koke, Gabi and Tiago gave Atletico's midfield an average age of 28. That's not outlandish by any means, but certainly relying more on experience and aggression rather than mobility—especially in the centre.
A Carrasco (21), Koke (23), Tiago (34), Torres/Saul (both 20) quartet is another matter.
There, Simeone will still expect rigid adherence to his tactical decisions, but more energy and pace is an obvious upside. With that said, Atletico won't change their insistence on first making sure they don't lose games.
Gabi will still be heavily involved, and so will the important presence of Raul Garcia. The 29-year-old is multifunctional and reliable rather than spectacular, but he can stabilise or galvanise the team with his presence as required and will act as a good alternative on the right side to the more creative, unpredictable team-mates.
It should also be noted that Garcia has a great habit of scoring important goals, even off the bench. That's something Atleti can't afford to overlook, even with increased firepower up front.
All told, Atletico look to have a wonderful balance to their midfield arrangement now, great depth and a range of attributes in the players who could contribute most over the course of the season.
But as a first port of call, and especially against the more restrained, mediocre sides in the league, Simeone should have seen enough in pre-season to give the vote of confidence to one of his young prodigies to play a significant part from the right side of his 4-4-2 system.
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