Diego Simeone

Believe it or not, Atlético were only two league titles behind Barcelona before the "Cruyff revolution" that started back in 1990.

Atletico also bar trying some emerging talent a la Falcao, Aguero in more recent times, in general they never went or had the pull to grab the Di Stefano's, Puskas, Maradonas, Romarios, R9 of the world. Dunno if less money it's the only real reason behind them not doing such transfers.
 
Come on... :lol: most of those titles were before most of us were probably even born.

Atletico had won 1 in 35 years or so before Simone was appointed, they'd been in the 2nd division more recently than they won a title before that. Yes they were one of the better teams in Spain still but there was a huge gap between them and Real & Barca before 2012/2013.

not that much, yet quite a chunk of time (1996) with him as a player, that's why he had enough backup when he started. Prior to that we have to go to the 70's where they were more or less as competitive as nowadays. As a curiosity they are the only Club that won a Intercontinental Cup without winning the European Cup (as it was called the CL).
 
not that much, yet quite a chunk of time (1996) with him as a player, that's why he had enough backup when he started. Prior to that we have to go to the 70's where they were more or less as competitive as nowadays. As a curiosity they are the only Club that won a Intercontinental Cup without winning the European Cup (as it was called the CL).

I'm not sure what you mean? From the 1976/77 season onwards their only La Liga win 1995/96 as you mentioned) before he was appointed as manager right at the end of 2011... that is 1 title win in the ~35 years like I said.
 
I'm not sure what you mean? From the 1976/77 season onwards their only La Liga win 1995/96 as you mentioned) before he was appointed as manager right at the end of 2011... that is 1 title win in the ~35 years like I said.

I've misread and thougth you've were implying that the first Title with el Cholo as a manager it was the first for Aleti since 35 years, so my bad from not getting it.
 
Think people are being a bit harsh on him. They won many CL games this season, won the game yesterday (but lost the tie), drew and won away to Barcelona, and are competing in the league. Pretty good season performance overall. But because they went out to the CL holders on penalties he's a big fraudman?

Hey now, don’t you come in here with a reasonable take using logic and reasoning.

But I agree people are being far too harsh on him. Atletico don’t have the pull or finances of Real and Barca. He’s done a good job to keep them as competitive as they’ve been since he took over.

I do think he should have another La Liga title (15/16 season) under his belt and 1-2 more Copa Del Reys, however.

He needs either the league or Copa this season and he has the squad to do it.
 
Him and Atletico are perfect "villains" of modern football. Wouldn't be the same without them. I like them a lot.
 
Think people are being a bit harsh on him. They won many CL games this season, won the game yesterday (but lost the tie), drew and won away to Barcelona, and are competing in the league. Pretty good season performance overall. But because they went out to the CL holders on penalties he's a big fraudman?

I like this new word, "fraudman"!
 
I really enjoy his football and the energy he injects into these clashes between top teams. For me there's nothing better than a tactical approach executed well, whether that's domination of the ball, or brilliance off it. The integration of his defensive game and his on-the-ball game, with the quickfire interplay following regain of the ball, is great to watch. Most managers would love to reach the levels of cohesion that Simeone teams have.

But either way, style of play is a subjective measure, and what really matters is Simeone's performance in relation to his resources which remains outstanding.


Yes. The bottom line for a manager is performance relative to their wage ball. Simeone has consistently outperformed on that measure for well over a decade now.

That's exactly how I see Football and why I'm often very critical of coaches. In my opinion Simeone is one of the standards, he has used all sorts of players for all sorts of roles but his teams always play as a team every phase is planned and executed at a high level 90% of the time.
 
I obvious think he's an all time great but in my opinion what's held him back the most and continues to do so is his aversion to any form of risk taking and reluctance to go for the jugular, way too many times he's been just happy enough to sit on a lead and hope for the best.

It's logical in the context of a league campaign but in knock out formats when the stakes are high that extra cushion might is the difference maker, take yesterday for example, I can't imagine the stress his players were put under keeping it level for 120 minutes, perhaps that an extra bit of initiative going forwards would have been enough to see them through instead of singularly focusing on keeping them out.

I understand the drawbacks of my proposal but surely after so many years of near misses it might be worth it to try and live a bit closer to the edge.
 
I don't like el Cholo in general. I think that he has lost many games during his Aleti's carreer for being extremely pragmatic, too much for my taste. I preffer more laisse fairez coaches too, I don't need everyone hustling all the time, just my taste. I don't want him near the NT, yet I can bet that he might pull out the job, I don't want to try it, I preffer other type of coaches.

Yet not recognizing that he has a lot of authority to manage lots of different players, with diff personalities, that looks like he can bring order to any big club and that always managed himself mostly with what he had and the club can, while having great campagins and sometimes great results, it's being daft.
He did and does a great job in Aleti and he had also many great games where he played great football, at the same time I hate when he tries to close a match too early, I hate such thing and he shot his foot in more than in one ocasion for doing that.

Back to this CL, he had a great match against Leverkusen. He survived against PSG more or less a la Pool in the first leg and from these last two matches against Real, there is not much inherently wrong to be said.
With a middle ground approach between the PSG and the Leverkusen match, he created more than Real Madrid, looked more dangerous when having the ball and was set to go as much as he could on the break, it was no just park the bus and send the ball to the crowd waiting for the end.

He could have risk a bit more in some instances? YEAH, specially in this last one in extra time, or in some instances in the second half of the last match.
Yet at the same time, it was REAL MADRID. This critic has more weight if it was another rival, yet Real that has their number (everyones number) when comes to punish you in just ONE or half chance (see Mbappes penalty), there wasn't much wrong in how things happened.
He clearly didn't want to give Real a single thing, he nulified Jude, Killian, Vini, etc...many of his players played great like Barrios, De Paul, Giezmann (till he could) and Alvarez. He lacked timing/luck or whatever in some of Aleti's best chances that could have paint this match way diff, his subs this time were active, yet a lot less effective than in other matches. So it's not precisly these two matches or this CL in general sthg to fall heavy on him.

YET Real fans have every right to make fun of him and Aleti, they just can do it in CL agaisnt them, leaving any analysis aside.
This kind of victory for Madrid fans tastes even better. Tomorrow would be another day to really go after Carletto and the boys and how they played, this is pure folklore football at the max. Winning playing badly, with a giant of a keeper and with a rival slipping? come on! it's poetry.
And here it's were the critic to at least try a bit more has more weight, this was a very predicatble ending if sometimes you don't risk just a bit more and that Vini missed whould have been read it as a sign to thsi si the time, but it's not that they didn't try either, they weren't clinical enough.
 
That's exactly how I see Football and why I'm often very critical of coaches. In my opinion Simeone is one of the standards, he has used all sorts of players for all sorts of roles but his teams always play as a team every phase is planned and executed at a high level 90% of the time.

Agree he's a top class manager there's no doubt about it.
 
Come on... :lol: most of those titles were before most of us were probably even born.

Atletico had won 1 in 35 years or so before Simone was appointed, they'd been in the 2nd division more recently than they won a title before that. Yes they were one of the better teams in Spain still but there was a huge gap between them and Real & Barca before 2012/2013.
They won the Europa League right before he got there. The narrative that he took an Espanyol level club and turned them into world beaters needs to stop.
 
Maybe try different next time?, many opnions here aren't over the top, nor even liking el Cholo, yet trying to be fair when credit it's due.
Don't let the dark force win over you Padawan, the hate is strong withinm you and el Cholo
I'll try, @Fobal . But it's so tough :lol:
 
Cholo has evolved his tactics a lot in the past 2-3 years. His team has played very exciting attacking football, especially this year, which is probably their most attacking style in the last 10 years. They focus on overloading wide area(combination in triangle) direct attacking, and counter-attacking.

He also uses two false 9s, who have a lot of freedom in attack, often dropping into half-spaces. Griezmann plays a bigger role than Julian in the build-up. Meanwhile, the full-backs and wide players are very aggressive in pushing forward.

I understand that in big matches against teams with superior technical quality or possession-based play, Atletico inevitably have to play on the back foot, often dropping into a mid-block or low block. This, of course, is not particularly surprising.

One of the most impressive aspects, however, is that every Atletico player works incredibly hard off the ball—all eleven of them. This reflects the team’s collective and spirit mentality, which is deeply ingrained in their approach. Naturally, Cholo has played a significant role in instilling this attitude.

After a difficult start to the season(mediocre results in UCL )he has now found a balanced and well-functioning team, which has been key to their resurgence.