Is Prioritising the Champions League an Option for Simeone's Atletico Madrid?

The sense of dejection was overwhelming. "If we continue like this we'll be fighting against relegation," Antoine Griezmann told beIN Sports.  

Only seconds removed from a scrap at Butarque, Griezmann was still in the immediate heat of the frustration when he delivered those words. His assessment was overblown, but it was striking anyway, and you could see what he was getting at: Atletico Madrid look flat and off, almost watered down, not really themselves.

Not everyone appreciated it, though.

"He should think about what he says," team-mate Saul Niguez told Deportes Cuatro on Tuesday (h/t Javier de Paz of AS). "You have to think where you are and what team you represent. It's true that at the end of the game that the exhaustion and the heat all comes together, but you can't say that. We have values."

Following their stalemate with Alaves six nights earlier, Atletico's inability to get past another newly promoted club in Leganes on Saturday—as well as the reaction that came with it—has quickly pushed them to where they've rarely been recently. In coach Diego Simeone's tenure to date, the club's existence has been almost purely based around upward mobility through tenacity, but the early sensations this season are different.

Following last season's Champions League final penalty-shootout defeat in Milan, there's an emotionally hungover feel to Atleti, a look of not being quite right. The natural inclination to is wonder whether they need to move on tactically and stylistically, whether an internal shift is needed, whether Simeone and Co. need to freshen themselves up after almost five years of a perpetual battle.

It's only early, but Griezmann's words reflected a need for urgency. His frustration pointed to a feeling of the league title already getting away, his message along the lines of snap out of it or we're done.

This is not the mood we associate with Atleti. In them, we've always seen an unwavering force and aggression. Like no one else, they compete. Every. Single. Day.

Yet is there a new opportunity here? Have the events of the opening weeks in LaLiga given Simeone and his men the option of setting themselves a singular focus in the form of the Champions League?

This has long looked like a season in which the league title would be a long shot for Atletico. Realistically, that's the case every year, but this time it is even more so.

Simeone has spoken previously of the odds his team faces in LaLiga, where Barcelona and Real Madrid dominate the landscape. 

"We have to prepare as a team for when Real Madrid and Barcelona are not so attentive," he told Onda Cero (h/t Reuters) last May. "[In 2014], they were not so focussed. To become champions again, we have to work to finish second, third and when they get distracted win the title again."

Despite the astonishing success he's achieved at the Vicente Calderon since taking charge in 2011, the Argentinian is still aware that, for his lot to win, a few things need to go their way. His team can't quite go head-to-head over 38 rounds with the game's giants at their peak, and Atleti's job is to capitalise upon the tiniest vulnerabilities. And in recent years, there have been some.

Until this year, every summer following Simeone's arrival had featured a degree of upheaval at the Camp Nou or the Bernabeu that had helped Atleti. In 2012, Pep Guardiola departed Barcelona to be replaced by Tito Vilanova; in 2013, Gerardo Martino took over after Vilanova stepped down, and Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Real following the bitter end to Jose Mourinho's tenure.

In 2014, the absence of stability continued; Real ripped up a Champions League-winning squad and built a new one to flawed principles, while Luis Enrique brought a Luis Suarez-led stylistic shift to Barcelona that required time. Then last summer, Real discarded Ancelotti for Rafa Benitez.

Such turnover has meant Barcelona and Real have consistently been in transitional periods, working through issues of cohesion and balance. But now they're not.

As pointed out here at Bleacher Report before the season began, LaLiga's heavyweights have an ominously settled look about them. In Enrique and Zinedine Zidane, they each have a manager in a position of authority, and on the pitch, there is tactical clarity, certainty over the composition of the starting XI, balance and a feeling of harmony.

We noted that Atleti had looked similar in this respect, but their start couldn't have been more different to their rivals'. Prolonged stability for them has perhaps led to a kind of familiarity that's not always helpful, and this is a season in which competing domestically was always going to be difficult anyway.

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Perhaps there's some sense in prioritising the Champions League, then. 

Even last season, after Atletico had beaten Real Betis in November to move into second place in the league behind Barcelona, Filipe Luis was asked whether Atleti could compete with the Catalans. "No," he said. Such an assertion is part of the club's underdog mantra, sure, but still there's a recognition within that this is a battle in which the odds are always against them. 

But their odds in Europe are significantly better. Get through 13 games, and Old Big Ears is theirs—and they don't even need to win all of them. The knockout rounds suit Atleti too, in the way they often reward tactical excellence, defensive strength and away goals. Just ask Barcelona and Bayern Munich. 

Part of the problem for Atletico here, though, is their own competitiveness. Being competitive creates its own obligation to continue being so, and the notion of sacrificing one goal to achieve another won't sit well with them. 

Yet the goal in question is the goal. Simeone has lifted every trophy available to him at the Vicente Calderon except the continent's biggest one. It's the one he and his club crave—the one they've been denied twice in three years and three times in painfully dramatic fashion in their history.

Is it worth going all in for? Maybe.

So what would that look like?

Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

No one would expect to see Atleti simply ignore the league, but there is a certain degree of sense in using LaLiga as preparation for the Champions League this season. 

If you remove the weekly obligation to keep pace with Barcelona and Real Madrid, Simeone and his players could use each jornada as an opportunity to tinker with the system, to trial new shapes and to experiment with different combinations with the aim of steadily reaching a new level. 

That could involve carefully developing a 4-2-3-1 as an alternative to a 4-4-2, bolstering the midfield and giving the side added versatility. It could be testing a front three rather than a forward pair or exploring the immense positional possibilities that exist for the likes of Saul, Koke and Yannick Carrasco, whose current roles still aren't what they could be.

If they drop the odd point in the process, so be it. Sevilla were prepared to live with that as they closed in on the Europa League last term, placing points in the league as secondary to their campaign in Europe. It got them what they wanted.

For Atleti, the approach could also extended to injury prevention. The club's style is a gruelling one, and though Simeone's men reached the Champions League final last season, they had to run the gauntlet that was Barcelona and Bayern without leading centre-backs Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez at different junctures.

They were able to overcome that, yes. But think how much stronger they might be if the likes of Godin, Gimenez, Griezmann, Saul and Koke were rested and protected in the week leading into a European tie, allowing the side's key men to hit maximum intensity for the contests they really want—in the competition they really want.

It helps that there is no clear standout team in the race for fourth place in the league this term. Even with a focus on Europe, Atleti would still be likely to finish third and therefore wouldn't jeopardise their Champions League qualification for next season. 

It's something to think about. After two games, they're not where they want to be. But these two games might have opened up a new opportunity.