Simeone s tactical innovation encounters obstacles? Elche broke the curse, what fatal problems did Atletico Madrid expose in this game?

Atletico Madrid's performance at the beginning of the season is unconvincing. After losing to Espanyol in the first round, the "Bed Sheets Legion" originally hoped to win the home game against Elche and win the first La Liga win this season. However, the game progress did not develop as coach Diego Simeone expected.

Indeed, in order to prepare for this season, Simeone has stated that she will promote the innovation of tactical concepts and advocates a play with "suppressing the opponent" as the core, but as of now, this tactical adjustment has not yet been effective. Atletico Madrid currently lacks the offensive aggressiveness required to implement this tactic, and frequent defensive loopholes - the goal of the score before the end of the game is the best example: in an Elche's corner kick offensive in the first half, Atletico Madrid's defense was in a chaotic position, and the striker of Elche seized the opportunity of losing position when Atletico Madrid player Le Normand returned to defense, and took a wonderful counterattack to score calmly by Rafa Mir facing Oblak.

In this way, the visiting team Elche equalized the score just 8 minutes after Atletico led by Simeone. In the 7th minute of the game, Throot opened the situation for Atletico Madrid, and the goal process was a typical manifestation of Atletico Madrid's "traditional style": after the team completed a quick steal, David Hancko gave the Norwegian striker an accurate long pass, and Throot immediately finished with high quality.

Although Atletico Madrid insisted on pressing at a high position after equalizing the score, trying to play to Julian Alvarez's core advantages, the tactical execution was not effective. Elche was not afraid of away games, and even took the initiative in possession of the ball for the rest of the half. In desperation, Atletico Madrid had to choose to cross the midfield directly and use Giuliano Simone's speed to find opportunities - he is also the only Atletico player who can disrupt Elche's defense line in this game, and even hit a goal post.

However, in the second half, Elche continued to cause trouble for Atletico Madrid. Although Atletico Madrid controls the ball, he does not know how to transform it into an effective offense. He eventually falls into a dilemma of single tactics and cannot pose a substantial threat to the visiting team. To make matters worse, Throot and Julian Alvarez were disconnected from the team on the offensive end, and Julian Alvarez had to retreat several times to catch the ball near the midfield, but never created a threatening offensive opportunity, even making mistakes when handling the ball multiple times.

It is worth noting that all Argentine players who appeared in this game were effectively restricted by Elche: Giuliano Simeone gradually lost his offensive influence and declined as the game progressed (the team's overall performance was also sluggish); Thiago Almada seemed at a loss for some periods. Seeing this, Simeone chose to replace Thiago Almada and sent Griezmann and Raspadori to try to strengthen the offensive firepower. However, Atletico Madrid's offensive ideas are still lacking, and even cross-drawing tactics are frequently used at the end of the game (Naval Molina has made a substitute) - this move just reflects the team's frustration and anxiety, after all, they have failed to meet external expectations again.

Even so, Atletico Madrid has not been able to rewrite the score. Although Griezmann tried several long shots, Elche goalkeeper Dituro was in a very brave state and became a key figure in the visiting team's defense line, successfully resolving all the potential threats of Atletico Madrid. In the end, Atletico Madrid shook hands with the newly promoted Elche 1-1 - You know, Elche had never scored points away against Atletico Madrid since 1969 (this is the first away against Atletico Madrid in the team history), and the team actually sent Federico Redondo to strengthen the defense at the end of the game to protect the draw. At the end of the game, Atletico Madrid booed fans at home, which was enough to show that the performance of Atletico Madrid at the beginning of the season was far from "convincing".