In the 17th round of La Liga, Atletico lost 0-2 to their city rivals Real Madrid. Looking back at this game, Kondobia, who played as a centre-back, performed extremely badly, and his rash tackle led to the frequent exposure of the Atletico defence. Surprisingly, Atletico fans did not complain about Condobia after the game, but pointed the finger at manager Simeone. As many people said after the game: "They all blame Simeone, the summer window not only did not buy the center back but also sent Neun away, and now can only rely on Condobia cameo." It is not good to be empty of the four! ”
It all started this summer. With the opening of the summer window, Atletico fans have called on their home team to bring in strong central defenders. This is so because atletico have only four centre-backs in The Club of Hermoso, Savic, Jimenez and Felipe. For Atletico, who often play at three centre-backs, there is a bit of a lack of manpower. What's more, Atletico's centre-backs not only lack a quantitative advantage, but also have mixed "quality": Jimenez's attendance is worrying, and Hermoso's performance is mixed and bad. In other words, the only people who can really use it with confidence are Felipe and Savage.
However, Simeone did not heed the fans' cries. Not only did he not consider buying a centre-back, but he was also ready to clean up the good seedlings of the centre-back in the Atletico team. First, he sold young centre-back Francisco Montero to the Turkish Super League magnate Besiktas, and then proposed to Serie A side Fiorentina to replace Vlahovic with 60 million + young centre-back Newen Perez. After being rejected, Simeone was still not dead hearted, and proposed a 20 million + Neun to trade Udinese midfielder De Paul. After being rejected again, Simeone finally decided to loan Neoune-Perez to Udinese.
With the official announcement of the transfer deal, Atletico fans were completely angry: "Simeone not only does not buy a centre-back, but also another one outside?" "It must be known that Neoun Perez is no stranger, he performed quite well last season on loan in Granada and is fully qualified to stay in Atletico as a rotational centre-back at this stage. Unfortunately, the wood is already in the boat, and the transaction cannot be changed. In this regard, some Atletico fans are worried: "If you don't make a mistake in the new season, you will have to make a central defender!" ”
As it turns out, the fans' eyes are shining. As the schedule progressed, Atletico did indeed have a central defender drought. Especially before the final round of the Champions League group stage, Felipe was suspended, Jimenez and Savage were injured, leaving only Hermoso as a full-time centre-back. Forced to do so, Simeone had to pair Condobia and Vrsalico at double centre-back. In fact, they are both midfielders and right-backs respectively. Fortunately, the makeshift pair of centre-backs blocked Porto's attack and helped Atletico advance to the Round of 16 of the Champions League.
It is a pity that this routine of demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall is doomed to not be used much, especially when the opponent is Real Madrid, who is capable and familiar with Atletico. After full research before the game, Real Madrid frequently used Condobia's cameo as a central defender from the beginning of the game to make a fuss: First, take advantage of Condobia's blind time difference in time to return to defense, directly threatening the Atletico defense. Second, put pressure on Cork, who succeeded Condobia in playing at the back. Looking back at Real Madrid's first goal, it was scored by forcing Koch to make a mistake and then breaking the ball and quickly counter-attacking. With the first goal, Real Madrid began to play Atletico's counterattack with peace of mind. As a result, Real Madrid, which took the initiative, finally defeated their city rivals 2-0.
Don't think about it, Atletico fans are quite dissatisfied with such a result, and then turned over the summer window not to buy a center-back and send away Nehoun's "old account". Coincidentally, Simeone also bluntly said at the post-match press conference that "Atletico's defense is wrong". Apparently, he also realized that Summer Window should buy a centre-back or keep Neun. It's just a pity that there is no regret medicine in this world. Before the winter window opened, Simeone had to suffer from a lack of personnel at centre-backs. Considering the upcoming Champions League and La Liga fixtures, it is likely that this will result in the four major empty. After all, it's hard to buy quality players in the winter window, especially when all teams know atletico need to buy people.