# Athletico Madrid

By [marycarter](https://paragraph.com/@marycarter) · 2024-11-05

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Watched Atletico on tape. A good, sometimes bright game against Las Palmas

Atletico's problems are probably exaggerated. But one has already come to a head. It seems to me that every football team should know what it is especially good at. Like any close-knit working group. They won't score against us / we pass the ball / we run better than anyone. The notorious identity

Concrete and iron left Atletico about five years ago. Simeone got more classy players, he chose to adapt to them. To make them comfortable. And now Cholo has a huge variety. Gallagher, De Paul, Serlot and Le Normand set completely different tones for their lines. One is missing - and the game has to be re-cut

Simeone used to paint his picture with a rusty nail on glass. Cholo had 12-13 brutally trained fighters. Now he uses all the paints - watercolour, gouache, oil and tempera. The picture turns out to be gaudy

But its best fragments were finished by Griezmann. This Atletico has Griezmann instead of a clear structure. It's not shameful, not everyone can guard and artet

Perhaps Simeone is building the framework of the game around one player. It's good that Alvarez is getting better at Antoine. It's good that Giuliano Simeone sets the standards for a workhorse. Koke always pleases

And yet. Griezmann-centrism is not reliable. And, alas, it is short-lived - Antoine is already 33

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*Originally published on [marycarter](https://paragraph.com/@marycarter/athletico-madrid)*