Diego Simeone recently marked a decade in the Atletico Madrid job. When he took over Los colchoneros in December 2011, the club sat 10th in la Liga following five losses in eight games and had won just one piece of silverware in the previous 15 seasons. They lost just five more games in the rest of the campaign with the Argentinian coach in charge finishing fifth their highest placing in three years. Also winning the Europa League the following season.
Before going one better in 2013-14 winning la Liga against the odds and reaching the champions league final, beating Barcelona and Chelsea on route to the showpiece and coming seconds away from embarrassing Real for the second season running.
Another UCL final followed in 2016 and another Europa league in 2018, while Simeone kept Atleti in the top three of la Liga for nine straight seasons. Finally getting his hands back on the title in 2021 before penning a new three-year contract to squash speculation that he was nearing the end of his tenure at the Wander Metropolitano and Rey's hopes of more silverware in years to come. But this season has so far been one to forget for the former midfielder. Following a big summer of transfer activity. Atletico have dropped off the pace in la Liga and looks set to give up their title to Real.
Before Christmas, Simeone lost three consecutive league games for the first time as rocky Blancos manager. With the club even dropping out of the top four while they scraped through their champions league group, winning just two of six games and losing three. During a season in which the Spanish top flight has few outstanding teams, this has led some to question whether Simeone has what it takes to build another truly great athletic side. But what has gone wrong for him over the last few months and can he turn it around?
The defining characteristic of Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid has always been its defensive solidity. Sure the club has also had superstars in its forward line from Radamel Falcao to Diego Costa and Antoine Griezmann. But as a side overall they've never been particularly big scorers and more so than any other big side in Europe are synonymous with the defense-first counter-attacking style of play.
Only once has Simeone's team scored more than 70 goals in a la Liga season and when they won the title ahead of the era defining Barcelona and Real Madrid sides in 2014, did so despite ranking sixth in the division for shots and tenth for possession. Notably, they also ranked first for tackles, shots conceded and unsurprisingly goals conceded.
In fact, in the nine full seasons, Simeone has been in charge of atletic have conceded fewer than any other la Liga side and seven of them, conceding the second-fewest in the other two.