It’s an epiphany worthy of Saul — and that’s not a reference to the Atletico Madrid midfielder. Diego Simeone has seen the light, the scales having fallen from his eyes.
He took charge of his 100th game in the Champions League in midweek — only Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson had previously clocked up a century at the same club. And his team won, taking their goals tally to 15, only Arsenal and Manchester City have scored as many.
When Simeone’s Atletico Madrid side faced Pep Guardiola’s team in the Champions League quarter-finals two seasons ago, the Argentine had become a parody of himself — a mean- spirited tactician whose sterile football was an affront to the talent he had available and the poor punters paying to watch it.
He played a 5-5-0 formation in the first leg at the Etihad and lost 1-0. His apologists justified the game plan as a way of staying in the tie.
But in the second leg the team remained negative in the first half and although they finally went for it after the break it was too little, too late.
Diego Simeone has finally brought a more attacking flair to Atletico Madrid after many years
Simeone took charge of his 100th Atletico Madrid game in the Champions League in midweek
Former Atletico striker Paulo Futre posted on social media at midnight after the match: ‘Are City still time-wasting?’. It was rich coming from Atletico, to criticise a team for defending a 1-0 lead. That had been Simeone’s greatest trick, but he could no longer make it work and he had nothing else.
For years Atletico directors had urged him to play a more attractive brand of football. Ever since the club signed Rodri from Villarreal in 2018 that had been the road map.
But he resisted. He had been an attacking coach in Argentina but had changed in Europe and his defensive style at Atletico had won two leagues.
Rodri only lasted a year with him before joining Guardiola at Manchester City and other signings also designed to provoke a change failed to force his hand. Then came, not so much the road to Damascus as the flight to Qatar.
When club football stopped for the World Cup, Atletico were outside the Champions League places. A clause in Simeone’s contract meant he would have to renegotiate it in the event of not making top four and with only a year and a half left, that suggested a parting of the ways.
The football was dour and the supporters were divided. It was like the last days of Wenger at Arsenal — half said things would be worse if he left; half accepted it was time to move on.
But Simeone was revitalised by the World Cup that began this time last year.
While players got fatigued and fans missed their club football, he was immersing himself in the tournament, being inspired by things he saw in the performances of Spain, winners Argentina, and others, that he wanted to implement back home.
Atletico’s second half of last season was so good, it would have been enough to win them La Liga had they not been so poor up until December.
They have taken that form into this campaign and if they beat Barcelona on Sunday and win their game in hand they will be six points clear of Xavi’s side, and a point behind Real Madrid who they have already beaten.
Keeper Jan Oblak makes an average 17 successful passes per game , after work in training
Simeone is still playing with a back five, but the ultra-offensive Nahuel Molina is the right wing- back, and converted wingers Rodrigo Riquelme and Samuel Lino alternate on the left.
His centre backs have to take responsibility to play passes that break through lines. Converted midfielder Axel Witsel and the cultured Mario Hermoso, who is also encouraged to overlap his wing-back, do it well.
They are helped by how much closer together the lines of the team are and by the brilliance of Antoine Griezmann. Keeper Jan Oblak, according to Opta Stats, has even gone from playing 8.5 successful passes per game in his first season, to 17 in the present — the result of hours of work on the training ground with keeper coach Pablo Vercellone and Simeone.
And work is still the key for the Atletico coach — intensity has been gained not lost with the change of style. From being on the brink 12 months ago, Simeone has just signed a new deal until 2027. And this is no longer the tale of a man hanging on at a club frozen in time with their hard-headed leader.
Instead it’s the story of a coach who went stale, then went to a World Cup and came back a changed man — ready to transform his team into Europe’s top scorers and La Liga’s entertainers.
Jude Bellingham’s generous gesture
Hopefully there will be many great nights in Jude Bellingham’s career that are far more important than Wednesday’s Champions League group game with Napoli.
But whatever he goes on to achieve, there will be some Real Madrid supporters, years from now, who will still recall the night Bellingham faced Napoli and made sure team-mate Joselu didn’t finish the match at the Bernabeu without scoring.
Real Madrid’s reserve centre forward had squandered more chances since coming on five minutes into the second half than some strikers at struggling clubs get in entire seasons. As the clock ticked down he seemed to be missing by an ever-increasing margin. Bellingham already had his goal. And he had run 11km, despite going over badly on his ankle in the first half, and had his ninth man-of-the-match award sewn up.
The game was won at 3-2 with top spot in Group C sealed but Bellingham was on a mission.
In the 92nd minute he dribbled down the left and with the outside of his right foot crossed to the back post where Joselu finally scored.
The striker, pushed towards the supporters by Bellingham, then apologised for all the misses and milked a little glory. There will be bigger displays down the road but for generosity that Bellingham performance will take some beating.
Jude Bellingham’s stoppage time pass ensured that Joselu got on the Real Madrid scoresheet
Five to watch this weekend
It is now 18 wins in 19 games for Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and Thursday’s 2-0 win over Hacken came with the bonus of Patrik Schick’s first goal in nine months.
The Czech striker scored 24 goals in 26 starts before injury wrecked his last season.
His comeback is perfectly timed with top scorer Victor Boniface off to the Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria in January.
It’s another boost for Alonso as he tries to wrestle the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich. Harry Kane and Co ought to go back top on Saturday against second bottom Union Berlin. Alonso’s team will return to the summit if they beat Borussia Dortmund at home in Germany’s game of the weekend on Sunday.
