La Liga 2014-15 season review: Atletico Madrid

Despite the fact that Atletico Madrid failed to scale the same heights as last season, they still managed to slay a few Spanish giants. Marcus Raymond reviews their season

Season Overview

When you look at Atletico Madrid’s 2014/5 season, it’s very hard to separate it from its previous one. It was always going to be a near impossible act to follow and so it proved.

In fact, apart from winning the Super Cup (beating city rivals/previous oppressors Real Madrid), they finished worse in every competition they entered, going out a round earlier in the Copa Del Rey, two rounds earlier in the Champions League (though a second leg loss to Real was their only one to their neighbours all season), while also finishing two places and 12 points worse off in La Liga.

It is therefore obvious that they failed to truly recapture the magic that carried them to a league title a mere seconds away from their first Champions League crown. However, that’s what last season truly represents as much as anything; a magical, imaginary ideal which came to life. In other words it’s somewhat harsh and unrealistic to judge Atletico by those standards, given the colossal power of the two teams that finished above them in La Liga, while also knocking them out of both cup competitions.

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They still proved they could compete with the best, topping their Champions League group that featured finalists Juventus, while also having the upper hand over Los Blancos over the course of the season despite the crucial second leg loss (and Javier Hernandez tap in of all the ways to lose…), but it was the consistency of last year’s form that they failed to rediscover.

That ability to almost will themselves to 1-0 or 2-0 win like they were possessed by Diego Simeone’s spirit rather than just managed by him was absent on too many occasions this year, causing them to fall behind Barcelona and Real around February and March before eventually only finishing one point above Valencia in fourth, and two ahead of Sevilla in fifth. They were eventually 16 points behind champions Barca, who, in a moment of pure, poetic justice, sealed the title with a win in the Vicente Calderon exactly one year after Atletico did the same with a draw in the Nou Camp.

Diego Simeone /

Of course, having said all of that, they were still one of the top eight team in Europe, a feat that would have been nearly impossible before Simeone joined and he still made this side one that no one wanted to face or enjoyed playing against.

It was once again built on a solid back four, who, when they had Christian Ansaldi or Guilherme Siqueira fit at left back and Jan Oblak settled in after an absent first half of the season, looked equally as solid as last year’s vintage. In midfield, Tiago’s age meant Mario Suarez and Koke got more opportunity to play in the middle of the park, with predictably impressive results.

However, if there’s one area of drop-off from last year’s side it may well have been goal from midfield, with Raul Garcia and Koke in particular falling short of last year’s tallies, putting more pressure on now strikers Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic. Both played well overall, with Mandzukic starting quicker before Griezmann’s class and quality began to shine through in the second half of the season, though neither was fully able to replace the sheer presence and activity they lost after Diego Costa’s sale to Chelsea.

Player of the season

While Diego Godin, Koke and Arda Turan were all once again titanic for this team, I’ve chosen to go with Griezmann as my player of the season. While he wasn’t able to fully make up for the loss of Costa, that is really more a compliment to just how good Costa was last year than it is a genuine critique of how Griezmann performed this season.

In today’s game of seemingly clear distinctions between strikers and creative midfielders Griezmann is fairly unique (at least among mortals; Lionel Messi can do anything he wants with the ball) in his ability to do both at a very high level. He is equally happy dropping into the right mid position in Atletico’s four man midfield, where he can come inside on his left foot and create for others, as he is playing as almost a lone striker with a five man midfield behind him; where he can go hunting for goals, and that is what makes him such an important and exciting player to watch.

Antoine Griezmann /

Grade

B+, this is admittedly in part an acknowledgement to everything Simeone has accomplished and how far he has bought the club as it is a reflection on their performances this season. However, they still challenged well on three fronts, which, considering the spending power of the two giants they have to compete with on a regular basis, is a worthy achievement.

Objectives

Once again, Atletico’s focus for at least the first 6 weeks of the summer window will be keeping hold of their own player, with Griezmann heavily linked with a move to Chelsea a particular worry. Koke’s insistence that he will stay at the club next season is a huge boost, and gives the team a vital building block around which they can start to construct the next iteration of Atletico under Simeone (he looks to be committed to the club long past next season). It will be interesting to see where the club goes from here, as they look to replace several members of an aging squad; in Saul Niguez and Jose Gimenez they have two excellent starting points, whether they can continue that trend of unearthing young talent, thus sustaining the club’s recent success; remains to be seen.

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