Question time
ATLETICO MADRID
DOES DIEGO SIMEONE HAVE THE ANTIDOTE TO HIS SIDE’S CHRONIC LACK OF FIREPOWER?
As proven by their sub-par goal haul in the group phase (a meagre seven goals in six ties), Atletico have struggled to be clinical in this season’s competition.
Round of 16 opponents Manchester United hardly constitute a rear-guard fortress, yet Simeone will only be too aware that answers have to be found in this ailing department. A killer instinct in front of goal is just as vital to the Simeone creed as his other commandments: high energy, commitment, solid defensive organisation and street smarts.
Atletico’s difficulties in attack are many and varied. Uruguayan goleador Luis Suarez has been out of form and out of favour, a pale shadow of the dead-eye hit man whose 21 goals fired the red-and-white stripes to their first Spanish league title in seven years last term. Young Portuguese whizz-kid Joao Felix is still prone to inconsistency, one day a marvel, the next anonymous, while French forward Antoine Griezmann has only on occasion performed to his world-beating potential since returning from Barcelona in the summer.
Suarez, now 34, has proved the thorniest of the problems. Not only has he scored just one Champions League goal for Atletico, his relationship with Simeone has deteriorated since being demoted to the bench. The subsequent dressing room toxicity represents pure kryptonite to Atletico: squad unity, an “us against the world” frame of mind, is normally a given at the Wanda Metropolitano. A brooding, truculent Suarez was never going to be appreciated by Simeone, hence
