Atletico Madrid proving tackling can be a quality
Atletico's regular starting XI
This weekend, Atletico Madrid host Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon stadium in the biggest game of the European season so far.
The two sides are level on points, and therefore it is literally a top of the table clash – La Liga’s rules mean teams are separated by head-to-head results rather than goal difference, and therefore having not played each other this season, the sides can’t be separated.
Halfway through the season, La Liga’s best two clubs are neck-and-neck, joint first.
This is such an intriguing contest because the sides are so contrasting stylistically. For the last half-decade Barcelona have specialised at possession play, with former manager Pep Guardiola memorably saying, “Without the ball we are a horrible side” at the height of their dominance. “One thing I can’t stand is losing possession,” he says.
Atletico are the complete opposition. “Possession isn’t everything,” says their coach Diego Simeone. However, Atletico are utterly magnificent without the ball.
Essentially, Atletico are the opposite of everything you expect from a Spanish side. The current footballing identity of Spain is based solely around keeping possession of the ball, an approach justified (and popularised) by the fact their national side is probably the most dominant in the history of the game.
Some of the key players in the national side are strict ideologues, obsessed with possession. In this respect, one of the most interesting views came from Xabi Alonso in a 2011 interview with the Guardian, on the subject of whether tackling is an attribute to be admired.
“I don’t think tackling is a quality. It is a recurso, something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game. At Liverpool I used to read the matchday programme and you’d read an interview with a lad from the youth team. They’d ask: age, heroes, strong points, etc. He’d reply: ‘Shooting and tackling’. I can’t get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play. How can that be a way of seeing the game? I just don’t understand football in those terms. Tackling is a last resort, and you will need it, but it isn’t a quality to aspire to, a definition. It’s hard to change because it’s so rooted in the English football culture, but I don’t understand it.”
Tackling, however, is precisely what La Liga’s joint-leaders Atletico excel at. Inspect the statistics from Atletico Madrid’s season so far, and you find they’re distinctly unimpressive in terms of possession (10th best in La Liga), pass completion rate (7th), or shots per game (6th). (Away from home, they have the fourth-least possession in the league.)
But their statistics without the ball are remarkable. They make more tackles than any other side, have conceded fewer shots than any other side, and have conceded the fewest goals in La Liga. At Barcelona’s peak, they conceded the fewest shots and goals because they dominated possession so heavily. Atletico concede the fewest shots and goals despite not looking to dominate the ball, and instead focusing upon stopping the opposition in their tracks.
To underline how unusual it is to see a title challenger with these tackling statistics, it’s worth looking at the most prolific tacklers from the other four major European leagues: Werder Bremen are 11th, Toulouse are 11th, Parma are 9th and Crystal Palace are 18th. The league’s most prolific tacklers are, ordinarily, midtable sides or battling relegation, not top of the league.
Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas, when asked about Alonso’s comments on tackling, took a more balanced view. “I think Xabi’s not dismissing tackling but referring to it as a last resort,” he says, also in a Guardian interview.
More interesting was his definition of an excellent tackler. “But there’s a player who’s played in both leagues and does that better than anyone: Javier Mascherano. Masche always dives in and he always comes away with the ball. He uses it a lot but not as a last resort, rather as a specialty. For him it’s a recurso [something you have to resort to] and a cualidad [a quality, something to aspire to]. Masche is incredible, very clever: he knows when to tackle, when to stand. He’s a guy who really knows how to play football.”
What is Mascherano but the modern day equivalent of Simeone? Mascherano may now play as a centre-back (which would probably not be the case at any other club in Europe) but he’s essentially the old-school, tough-tackling Argentine defensive midfielder, the number five that attempts to mark the opposition number ten out of the game.
And, of course, Simeone’s style is perfectly reflected in Atletico’s gameplan. “Atlético Madrid play like Diego Simeone played,” says Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. “Tough, focused, and tactically perfect.”
Positionally, Atletico’s approach is relatively simple. They stay very compact, with centre-forwards David Villa and Diego Costa dropping deep to prevent the ball being played through the centre of the pitch. More importantly, they remain extremely narrow, with the wide midfielders Koke and Arda Turan tucking inside into the centre of the pitch. “We are not a team of individuals,” midfielder Arda Turan tells told FourFourTwo recently. “We are a collective group of hard working players who always want the best for the team. We battle for every ball during every minute of each match.”
Against Barcelona, this is particularly effective because it prevents them playing through Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, and they instead work the ball wide, and switch play repeatedly.
It’s simple in principle, of course, but Atletico work extremely hard without the ball, shuffling from flank to flank to close down possession, repeatedly doubling up against wide players. They generally regain the ball in their own half, although often the positions of tackles are in wide positions rather than in the centre – the opposition are put off playing the ball through the congested middle, and try more ambitious passes down the flanks. A good example was in their win over Real Madrid earlier this season:
The peculiar thing is that in a pure positional sense, Atletico’s approach is similar to that of possession-based sides – packing the centre of the pitch to dominate that zone. They’re simply doing it in a completely reactive way, positioning themselves there to break up passing moves, rather than create them.
Of course, they also have superb attacking weapons – a variety of talented midfielders that all play different roles, and the best striker in the division, in Diego Costa.
The most interesting football matches often come between two sides that are well-matched in terms of ability, but completely different in terms of style. This weekend’s clash should be a perfect example – a side top of the league because of their passing, against a side top of the league because of their tackling.
Nice review ZM, even if, I am not sure if Tackling is the most important plus of Atletico, for me its their Attitude and group dynamism. Simeone searched his brain, went back into his playing days, and just copied that part of his brain and pasted it onto players (!!!) The team is almost like 10 Simeone’s (except for Villa).
And they have three great players in Koke, Deigo Costa and Courtois.
At this point, may I also say, it was disappointing to see Koke occupying 90 th position in the Guardian’s list of 100 players, which I believe, you also helped to pick. Costa too was not anywhere near to the top 10 or 20(dont remember his correct place, 25 or 35). One of the best assist makers and best strikers in Europe in the current season, ranked so low!!!
For me the most important part of Atleti’s system has more to do with their narrow positioning than their tackling or undeniable dynamism. The narrow positioning allows them to control the central area of the pitch, forcing the opponent wide, or to make rash passes. This then gives the Atleti players the chance they need to make use of their tackling ability and win the ball back. The strength of the system is as much about creating good opportunities to tackle as it is about possessing players with good tackling ability.
Nice to see the return of a non-match report article to this site, albeit you’re a busy man elsewhere! Long may such entries continue.
Agreed on that point. I was just wondering where the feature on ‘New Managers’ had gone to. We got the Barca one and that was the end of it as far as I know. I’m happy for ZM to be doing so well for himself, but I too preferred the general analysis and style articles rather than the match reports. Not a gripe, this just reminded me how much I enjoyed previous articles of it’s ilk. This on the other hand;
‘They make more tackles than any other side, have conceded fewer shots than any other side, and have conceded the fewest shots in La Liga’
suggests he may be rushing these out a bit too rapidly!
I think I read that ZM was thinking about ending the New Manager series. Personally I’d like more things like this on clubs by season.
Please don’t end it! Wish this is not true!
I know it is difficult to write this kind of general article, but this kind of general article has a greater reference value than the particular match analysis
Happy to see that Michael Cox becomes more and more famous (and more and more people like to read football tactics analysis), but a big pity to see that less and less time of Michael can be squeezed out to update the website…
Sorry
It’s not so much other work, just more stuff in personal life to spend time on too! Apologies I’m trying to be more active in 2014!
I was hoping you’d do an article on Atletico Madrid. As Spanish football seems to have been dominated by the 4-2-3-1, 4-1-2-2-1 type formations over the last few years, its interesting that Atletico have gone back to a more orthodox 4-4-2 with such success. The clip above shows how hard they work to keep their shape and deny the opposition any space. Reminds me of the old AC Milan side under Sacchi but with a much deeper line before they start to press.
Yeah, I agree with that. It’s a bit boring all those sorts of copycat styles, I think it’s very easy to park 2 holding players directly in front of the back 4 and just let the 3 in front do as they please. This Atletico team is a highly disciplined unit, and they pay more respect to the defensive principles of the game with the 2 banks of four. I love a team like this personally. I’ve seen them referred to as 10 scrappers + Diego Costa, which is unfair and reductive. They have a brilliant collection of individuals but obviously a tremendous discipline and work ethic, their success is no accident. Let’s just hope they get some silverware to show for it!
“Let’s just hope they get some silverware to show for it!”
They already have, they have won more trophies than Real Madrid in the last 5 years!!!!
Wow! haha, had overlooked that. Well then, let’s hope they get more sustained success and more prestigious trophies (fingers crossed for La Liga!) in addition to more exposure and recognition from philistines like me.
“The league’s most prolific tacklers are, ordinarily, midtable sides or battling relegation, not top of the league.”
Interestingly, the next four in the Spanish league after Atlético are Bilbao, currently fourth; Málaga, midtable; and then Celta and el Rayo, both battling relegation.
I’m always posting about how irresponsible English football is on here, but I really think England could do well to learn a thing or two from this Atletico side.
It has many of the ‘cliches’ of English football
-A battering ram forward (who by the way has far more class than that moniker might suggest).
-Incredible work rate and determination.
-Stopper style centre backs.
-An uncomplicated style of play.
-2 banks of 4 (obviously plus the two strikers when defending).
As ZM points out, the two teams at the top of La Liga couldn’t have more contrasting styles, this proves that no one style of play is inherently better than the other. Therefore the teams in England should stop being irresponsible children and just lifting technical players out of other leagues with ridiculous amounts of money. They should cultivate their own style and patently that style is closer to Atletico than Barca.
Without money the PL would be a backwater league. That shit league doesn’t add anything new to the game, no tactical innovations or no producing their own World Class players.Teams like Chelsea can spend £1 Billion over a decade and still fail to produce top quality football.It’s just a money league which the ignorant masses flock to because they are susceptible to advertisement and hype.
Even now, with the increasing wealth most games are still headless-chicken style matches, shit on a stick stuff. I get irritated after 10 minutes and turn it off.
Just as a note: recurso is Spanish for resource.
Tactical analysis of Pep’s Barca:
http://www.allasfcb.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/5-footballing-concepts-ive-learned-from.html
Topic related so I thought some people might like to read it so I shared it. Enjoy your sunday!
interesting article. i thought the change in interpretation of laws re tackling was starting to make the likes of keane, vieira obsolete as neither club seems to want to find a direct replacement. although flamini is a definite change towards that this season.
Tell me, ZM, have they simply bought good tacklers, or have they coached a mixed bunch of players to make them better tacklers? (And if coaching can do it, why did nobody ever coach Scholes?)
The system that they employ puts their players in positions to make the tackles, they aren’t really exceptional tacklers, perhaps Gabi is but nobody else. Positioning and intercepting is far more important. If you want to see a
Nice article ZM. But I would also like to add that Atletico aren’t a compleltley reactive side. Just because they don’t seek possession it doesn’t necessarily mean they are reactive. For example they employ counter-pressing when possible throughout matches, a tactic perfected by Barca and Dortmund in recent years. Would didn’t employ it as much yesterday as they did in the 1st Leg of the SuperCup because they where missing they dynamic and athletic Mario Suarez who was replaced by the more static, technical Thiago Mendez. But still, there was several instances throughout the match whereby they won the ball back by Barcelona’s box and nearly created goalscoring chances. Particularly in the first several minutes of the game Atletico looked to exploit this.
Also what is interesting, when Atletico sit deep with 10 men behind the ball their full-backs don’t play narrowly like full-backs do in other ‘Park the bus teams’, when the opposition have the ball near the centre of the pitch both Atletico’s full-backs will be situated outside the parameters of their peanlty box, in a position whereby they can pressure an opposition wide player as soon as a pass is made towards him and not let him turn. This allows Atletico Madrid’s “wide players”, (I put it in quotes because they are far from orthodox side midfielders), to stay narrow and occupy the half spaces( the spaces between the double pivot and the touchlines, for example between Gabi and the touchline), this basically means that Atletico have 4 midfielders occupying the centre of the pitch, making it so congested that even Barcelona find it difficult playing through there. In fact the two strikers come so deep that even they are almost occupying the midfield zone.
So you can’t play through the middle, the vast majority of sides will struggle in the air against Courtious, Juanfran, Miranda, Godin and Filipe Luiz (All these guys are over 6 foot and pysical), not to mention the double pivot in front of them are good in the air and strong, especially when Mario Suarez is playing, so playing the long ball game is a game of question unless you want to play the percentages which you are unlikely to win. So trying to exploit them on the wings is the way to go, but teams have to realize that passing it to a winger and hoping for the best won’t work, because the Atletico Madrid fullback won’t let him turn, there is a touchline on one side (Guardiloa said the touchline is the best defender in the world) and the Central Midfielder/Side Midfielder (Arda Turan and Koke) hybrid pressures the winger from the other side as soon as possible, the winger has nowhere to go except to pass it back to a defender (even then Villa or Costa can sometimes cut this passing option off) or to risk a lateral pass to a midfielder which the Atletico Madrid mid fielders have been trained to pounce on because the angle of the pass means it is hard for the receiver to control and to make a quick, accurate pass. Atletico steal a lot of balls by employing this tactic, they force the opposition wide and then employ a pincer like movement on the opposition wide players.
This is easily the best defense/ defensive unit in Europe and more complicated and ceberal approach play is needed to break them down. The only weakness I can see is the space behind the full-backs when they come to pressurize an opposition wide player in possession. Miranda is fast and good at 1 vs 1’s but Godin is slower and more clumsy at tackling IMO, Porto caused Atletico quite a lot of problems in the first half in Porto’s home stadium by pushing their fullback’s forward very aggresivley making Atletico’s fullback’s outnumbered on the flanks on numerious occassions, they where forced to make the decision on whether to pressurize the Porto full-back with the ball or stay back and mark the Porto wingers behind them. In the 2nd Half Simeone changed to a 4 – 5 – 1 or 4 – 1- 4 – 1 formation (I can’t remember which)and ended up winning the game because Porto’s fullback’s no longer had the space to receive the ball, turn and run at Atletico’s fullbacks. Atletico dominated from then on. The only problem with making both your full-backs bomb on though is that it is very risky from a defensive point of view, Diego Costa is excellent at running the channels and can punish any team with his dribbling and finishing skills. Arda Turan is excellent on the break too.
Anyway, I hope Atletico win the title, they are a fresh of breath air in La Liga. I don’t remember a team in La Liga ever being so disciplined defensively.
Fact:
Ronaldo (129) has taken more than double the number of shots Diego Costa (57) has this season, however has scored just one more goal.
Why do people assume that Ronaldo is the undisputed 2nd best player in the world. Several other players match or come close to matching him in terms of goals (Diego Costa, Suarez, Ibra etc) but at the same time they have many other facets to their game which they use to help their team in other ways. Think about it, what does Ronaldo offer apart from goals? What else does he excel at? Not much really. In fact he is a liability in most big games because he refused to work hard for his team which leaves Marcelo exposed 2 vs 1.
come off it. some decent points, in terms of those players are having v good seasons but you have to marry the short term with the long term consistent brilliance to be right up there. costa is 25yrs old. he scored 10 lge goals last yr, and before that never been in double figures for lge goals. ronaldo is annihilating records. CR also has 4 assists this season to costa’s 1. Suarez is short term probably better than even CR, he’s almost coming close to crazy records like dixie deans ie 22 lge goals in 16 games 22 / 16 * 42 = 58 !!! ( i think they played 42 lge games back in dixies time but i don’t think he featured in all games..possibly missed 3..i looked into this recently ) .