Why Atletico Madrid Shouldn't Sweat the Goals They Conceded Against Malaga

So much for boring old Atletico Madrid.

In the club’s final season at the Vicente Calderon, they appear to be determined to let the old ground bow out with a bang.

Three of the last four Liga matches played there have ended with scorelines of 5-0, 7-1 and, on Saturday against Malaga, 4-2.

Each time, Atletico Madrid were on the winning side, returning to the top four of the table after Saturday’s home win. Ultimately, that is all that matters.

The Malaga match brought braces for both Yannick Carrasco—who scored the first and last goals of the game, both brilliantly, to enhance his already burgeoning reputation as an elite-level game-changer and a go-to man for manager Diego Simeone—and Kevin Gameiro, who demonstrated the exact type of penalty-area prowess that he was signed for.

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And with those four goals in mind—plus the identities of the two men who scored them—it was a fine evening for this “new” Atletico. So much so that they shouldn’t be focusing on the negatives.

That’s exactly what some will do, though.

After all, this was the first time that Atletico had conceded two goals in any match this season, the first time they’d conceded two at home since January and the first time they’d conceded two at home in the league since losing 2-1 to Barcelona in September last year—22 home league games ago.

They are staggering numbers, and they indicate just what Atletico have been good at for a long time.

Their defensive record is something the club has prided itself on during what is fast approaching Simeone’s five years in the job.

The Colchoneros have always been compact and solid, and they barely give opponents a look at their goal, let alone allow them a shot at it. But they were none of these things against Malaga.

Sure, the nature of Sandro Ramirez’s goal for the visitors to bring the scoreline back to within a one-goal deficit in the first half was fairly fortuitous, as his free-kick sailed over everybody and into the back of the net.

But it was the nature of the second Malaga goal that surprised everybody, as former Atletico midfielder Ignacio Camacho arrived to head home through the grasp of Jan Oblak in a crowded penalty area. It was the type of goal you hardly ever see Atletico concede.

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They were hampered by the 60th-minute sending off of centre-back Stefan Savic, whose presence would have been vital in that situation, which happened just four minutes after that red card.

The Montenegrin would have helped deal with the cross into the box, but while Simeone will analyse the goals that his side conceded, it makes no sense to focus on the mistakes too much.

Atletico did, after all, win the game on Saturday evening.

They picked up three points, which were vital following their first defeat of the season in their previous league game, at Sevilla, and that should be all that matters.

That seemed to be the gist of Simeone’s thoughts, as he told reporters at his post-match press conference:

"

The truth is that I saw the team was well and defended Malaga’s attacks well.

I don’t want to get it wrong, but Malaga had few attacks, but with a 3-2 result, there is always danger.

It has been a difficult game, like all in La Liga, which we controlled quite well during the 90 minutes. We leave with a well-deserved and hard-fought victory.

"

Hearing the Argentinian say such words isn’t all too uncommon. He does, like all football managers, have a few phrases he will dust off in the aftermath of a victory. But normally, he’d be saying such things after a 1-0 win, not a 4-2 one.

The calm, relaxed nature with which he approached the questions—and indeed approached the whole game—suggests he was more than happy with his team’s display during it, though. And if anything, he will almost be accepting that. Because he has adopted a more attacking approach this season, games such as this are possible.

Atletico were good during the match, although they have played an awful lot better this season. But the fact any such statement can be followed with the qualifier that they won and scored four goals kind of hints at the feeling around the club at the moment.

In previous years, Atletico would have to sweat blood and tears in order to score four goals, but the way in which Simeone is setting up his team—and the players he is putting into the side—is allowing for more and more chances to be created. And when chances are created, goals are scored. It is that simple.

But one of the key elements of that is getting more and more bodies into the box, and as such, the defence will become somewhat weaker and the opposition will get opportunities.

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That means Atletico can’t afford to get too obsessed with their amazing clean-sheet record, as they have been in the past.

By being more open, more expansive and, let’s face it, better to watch, they have given themselves a greater chance of overhauling Barcelona and Real Madrid, both domestically and in Europe this season. But they will concede goals too.

Oblak remains a fantastic goalkeeper—and you’d imagine that having him there will help them keep more clean sheets than their rivals—but he has to expect a little less protection from time to time. He’s a good-enough goalkeeper to embrace that challenge and work with it. Perhaps it’ll mean the Slovenian will get even better.

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He has such a high ceiling to work with, but then so too does this Atletico team as a whole.

And for those who watch them regularly, it is refreshing to be talking about an exciting, attacking talent such as Carrasco and an archfinisher such as Gameiro, who is slowly coming into his own at the club and might end up having an even bigger say in events the longer the season goes on.

So if anyone tells you Atletico are boring, you can just direct them to results and performances such as Saturday’s against Malaga, when the concession of two goals was almost brushed off because they knew that they had the power to score four.

It is a huge shift in mentality, but it might just end up being a successful one.