It said that Alexander Sorloth was on the couch, and even more that Antoine Griezmann joined him. Diego Simeone, known for taking a few weeks, if not months, to acclimatize his new signing sessions, the La Liga campaign started five new faces in the line-up. Before last summer, only Marcos Llorente and Jan Oblak played from this starting XI for Atletico Madrid. Simeone not only seemed to look for adjustments, but also something completely different.
And he got it. With Thiago Almada and Alex Baena Nominal behind Julian Alvarez, they played where they had to. There were expensive, one or two, rarely more than three at the same time. Never enough to get caught with it. Los Rojiblancos seemed to be agile, to unleash the lock, instead of going around it, or to find an opening with which it was proud.
It was patient, sometimes brilliant and sometimes enchanting. Atletico was confronted with a chased opponent and refused to be chased. But it was more related to hypnosis, or a completely more cruel trick. Instead of breaking the fingers, it was the roar of the RCDE stadium and the howling of one of the most intimidating attack dogs of the United States that woke them up for 73 minutes in a dream of the season.
Different turning points have been used to describe the game; The Zenit of their compelling exchanges that come from the post through Dint of Alvarez's Finish, the removal of Johnny Cardoso during the break, the introduction of Griezmann. The illusion of control disappeared the Instant Miguel Rubio, a big man in the highest boxes, slid past Jack Raspadori, who was neither quick neither skilled.
At what exact point Atletico went from the front to holding a narrow lead, is not essential, but the entire series of events was traumatic because of its well -known nature. Although it is true that the body of defeats to Real Madrid and Barcelona closed Atletico last season, Los Rojiblancos took more than a month on both sides of those collisions, Los Rojiblancos took a single point against Getafe, Espanyol and Las Palmas. Twice they led in those games, in all three atletico were 'in control' at a certain point.
Captain Koke Resurreccion, as long as their best tool for obtaining control, said the Gearstick, after the competition that Atletico was missing effectiveness in both boxes through explanation. Although that is true to a certain extent, Espanyol landed more on the goal of Jan Oblak. When Atletico was forced to suffer, a term devised by Simeone, and a necessity in the multiple choice of every good manager of answers, Los Rojiblancos could not get out of it, nor the fight through that period. Like last season.
“I think I learned something for myself,” Simeone told Diario as after the game, because several journalists experienced that the substitutions did not have the desired impact. “I will take something away from it, but I have learned something from what we saw. There is something for me, you will see.”
El Cholo is often innocent from so much that he is accused, but where he has modernized too much, is in the era of five substitutions. His management of the touchline is Antsy, loaded and intense – useful for the focus of his players. Last season Atletico often made early changes and usually all five changes, a tendency to proactivity that his team left just like the opponent, in a constant search for competitions, for adjustments.
The middle part of last season was defined by 16 stop time goals from Atletico, while they hit knock -out slap after knock -out bladder on emphatic, exciting fashion. While their strength decreased in the second half of the season, Atletico was all too often at the end of a fool. Whether it is the right changes that cannot benefit from a lead, or an inability to get the back foot, saw Atletico Games slip away in the same way as Sunday's meeting against Espanyol.
Fortunately it's just the first game. Atletico can banish such a spectral defeat in the accident area. On the one hand Simeone will have learned that he has an exciting and talented group of signing sessions with which he can explore new instructions by games. On the other hand, it was repeated a lesson last season.