Atletico's football has shown a new look in recent times, what is the reason for this? In fact, the change of Atletico can be seen from the starting lineup alone, and in the match against Celta, Atletico's lineup has several noteworthy points: the new signing Renaldo, who joined from Lille, has quickly won the trust; the two-time Lodi is in front of Renaldo, and his level of handling of the ball in the box is amazing; Herrera and Condobia, who were ranked after Cork and De Paul, started and performed well On the front line, Correa and Felix were paired, and Suarez and Griezmann missed the starting line-up.
These changes are hard for some to believe, after all, we had the impression that this was a team in which Suarez, Cork and Griezmann played the lead role, all three of them were famous players in La Liga, and the likes of Lemar, Carrasco and DePaul were supposed to be the main players. However, in fact, these theoretical main players did not bring good results to Atletico. Some voices began to question Simeone's position, in fact, to some extent, they did not recognize Atletico's previous football ideas.
Lodi previously played mainly as a left-back, but it is also an indisputable fact that he has not been reused by Simeone recently. Lodi is known to be an attacking full-back, but his performance in handling the ball twice in the penalty area was impressive: in the 35th minute, Condobia's long pass to the back of the Celta defender, Lodi first used excellent stopping technique to control the ball inside, and then shot the ball into the near corner with his left foot after continuous shaking, and Lodi's ball sense, possession and shooting footwork in handling the ball were rare even for world-class wingers. In the 60th minute, it was Condobia who sent the ball forward and Lodi inserted the ball from the left and shot into the net. Wouldn't it be a shame that Lodi, who has such offensive skills, is it too bad to be busy defending at left-back? It's hard for Lodi to get so close to the box if he plays at left-back, and Atletico's left winger Carrasco prefers to keep the ball under his feet, but Lodi's efficiency in attack still makes it believe that he may be Atletico's "secret weapon": once Atletico can tear apart the opponent's defensive formation by inverting, Then Lodi has the ability to use the space to quickly complete the fatal blow.
Two other recent highlights at Atletico are Condobia and Herrera. Condobia has delivered two wonderful assists to Lodi, and it must be said that Kondobia's recent performances in the center-back position have been more exciting than Cork and De Paul. Condobia initially joined Atletico as Thomas Patti's successor, although he has made more cameo appearances at centre-back. In fact, Condobia's technical characteristics are not quite the same as Thomas Patti's, and the former Valencia midfielder prefers dribbling and combs the attack with passes. Another Mexican midfielder who has recently appeared in high numbers, Herrera, has been almost a marginal figure in atletico, having made only 21 appearances for Atletico last season, but recently fans have discovered that Herrera is the most organized of all Atletico midfielders – Herrera's creativity and ability to personally drive the attack are not available to many Atletico players, and many public opinions are pointing out that Herrera's talent in the past two seasons has been buried, and he deserves more opportunities to perform.
It stands to reason that Atletico, who can line up two sets of strong squads, should not be the current situation of 15 points behind The top real Madrid and fighting for the Champions League seat, although Atletico has indeed lost some good players in recent years, but the aspiring Atletico management is still constantly carrying out targeted reinforcements. However, this team wants to overturn some old "traditions", such as Suarez, Griezmann and Cork's main position is not unshakable, such as Herrera, who seems to be incompatible with the team, can actually become the source of creativity of the team. A good example is Brazilian centre-back Felipe, a former Backstreet of Porto who was well received at the beginning of his time with Atletico, but Felipe's form at the age of 32 has slipped markedly this season, making it difficult for Atletico to continue to entrust him with important games.
Although Atletico failed to win Manchester United in the Champions League a week ago, Atletico did have a clear initiative on the pitch. Simeone has lined up very similarly in the last two matches: Herrera and Condobia have teamed up to control the midfield, Lodi has put more energy into attack, Renaldo behind him to protect them, and Felix and Correa, a younger, more adept at striking with the ball. What makes Atletico's football look new? In fact, in terms of quality, quantity and complementarity, Simeone's attackers are good enough, but some of Atletico's previous superstitious star players have led to the team's potential not being fully tapped. You know, in the match against Celta, when Simeone sends Felix, Correa, Llorente, Lodi, Herrera and Condobia to form the midfield, Atletico have players such as Griezmann, Suarez, Lemar and Carrasco on the bench as a backhand option. Now that Fossarico, Jimenez, Savage and Rainierdo are more and more stable in the main position in the defensive line, in the midfield, Simeone can try to conjure up more tricks, just hope that Simeone will not just see atletico's recent changes as a "stopgap measure", after all, "who is in good shape and who plays" has been verified by many teams.
(Santiago-Wang)