5 Things you need to know about Atletico Madrid ahead of the La Liga season

1. Our first La Liga preview of the season is none other than Atletico Madrid who are going into their 15th season in a row led by Diego Simeone, last season was a ‘what could have been’ for Atelti making the Champions League semi-finals and getting to the final of the Copa Del Rey. They finished 4th in the league which was heavily influenced by Simeone’s rotation in the league games when the La Liga title was far out of sight, their run in the Champions League was one for the ages putting out Club Brugge, Spurs and Barcelona before eventually getting edged out in the semi-finals against Arsenal. Their Copa Del Rey run was similar putting out the likes of Real Betis and Barcelona before eventually losing on penalties in the final to Real Sociedad, a season of nearlys for Atelti that Simeone will be keen to improve on heading into the new season.

2. What has Atletico Madrid’s transfer window looked like so far? Atelti have been busy so far in the window bringing in Cristian Romero from Spurs at centre-back, Martin Hjulmand from Sporting Lisbon in midfield, Kang In-Lee from PSG in the attack and Alejandro Grimaldo from Bayer Leverksuen at full-back. There’s been a couple of outgoings as well with club legend Antoine Griezmann leaving on a free to Orlando City, Thiago Almada going to River Plate and Nahuel Molina heading to Roma. The biggest outgoing could yet be to come though as Julian Alvarez could be on his way to Barcelona by the end of the window, Barcelona did put a £100 million bid that was immediatley rejected before a week later Real Madrid came knocking with a £150 million bid that stunned the world and was a clear tactic to try and boost the price. Atleti rejected that bid as well which has left us in a stalemate for well over a month now, with 2 weeks left of the window it remains to be seen whether Alvarez will still be at Atleti come September the 1st.

3. How has Atletico Madrid’s pre-season gone so far? Atleti have only played 3 games this pre-season with the first being a 2-1 loss to Man United with Arnau Ortiz scoring Atelti’s only goal of the game, next up came a 3-1 loss to Man City with Jorge Dominguez scoring the only goal of the game for Atleti. The final pre-season game came against Olimpique Marseille with Atleti running out 2-1 winners on the day with goals from Rodrigo Mendoza and Carlos Martin, the interesting part about this game was that we saw Simeone go to a back 3 which I think suits a lot of these players. Alejandro Grimaldo first of all is perfect as a left-wing-back whilst Giuliano Simeone can bomb down the right with his electric pace, I wouldn’t be shocked if Simeone stays with the back 3 for the start of the season as there is a real lack of wingers in this Atleti squad. Atleti kick-off their La Liga season at home against Malaga on Wednesday.

4. Who are the players to watch for Atletico Madrid this season? The first player I want to talk about is Marc Pubill at the heart of this Atleti defence, I thought he was immaculate last season and looked so assured as a 23 year old centre-back in a Simeone system. He’s also now a World Cup winner but only came off the bench in one game against Austria for a minute, still got a medal so that’s a win in my books. I expect his level to go up once again this season especially next to Cristian Romero at the back, the second player to watch this is Pablo Barrios who unfortunately missed out on going to the World Cup through injury but played such a big part in Atleti’s success throughout the start of last season. He missed over 3 months of football after January last season which I do think played a big part in why Atelti’s form dropped off a cliff towards the closing stages of the season, he’s by far their best midfielder and with Hjulmand coming in you’d imagine that’ll be a pretty formidable duo in midfield next season. The final player to watch is Kang In-Lee who has now come out of the shadow of giants at PSG and will be starting most weeks in this Atleti side, I’ve always been a fan of Lee in the snippets we’ve seen at PSG so hopefully he can kick on in this Atleti side this season. Is there anyone else we need to be keeping an eye on this season for Atletico Madrid?

5. Predictions for Atletico Madrid this season? Simeone’s biggest task has always been to capitalise whenever Real Madrid and Barcelona slip up in La Liga, his two title wins were built on unbelievable defences that conceded less than 25 goals in the league all season. Do I think we’ll see that this season? No but there’s always a chance that Mourinho’s Real Madrid capitulate then an injury crisis at Barcelona could well lead the way to an Atletico Madrid title charge, I don’t think that’s going to happen but you know who’ll be there if it does. I can’t see any higher than 3rd place for Atleti if I’m honest in a season which is likely to be Simeone’s last as manager of the club, he’d absolutely love to go out with a trophy so I wouldn’t be surprised if they went far in the Copa Del Rey again this season. The Champions League is almost certainly too far away again especially if Alvarez leaves but maybe a Super Cup will suffice in possibly Simeone’s last season. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.