There is a life hack that lets you know how fair the score of the Atletico match against Liverpool is, and which works only for these two teams. Here it is: you need to see the statistics of hits.
For any other match, such statistics will be useless or even deceiving. But it is for these two teams that it is relevant as a criterion of justice. Why? Because the quintessential football of Atletico is to kill all living things in a semicircle in front of their own free kick. This is such a football, in which there will be few exits to shock positions. In both directions, these are costs of style. And the quintessence of Liverpool football is ball ownership transitions. And such a game often allows you to go to shock positions. But also to the opponent, this is a cost of style.
Now look at the statistics of hits.
“Atletico”: seven hits in total, two of the limits of the penalty area, four more of the bounds of someone else’s half of the field (strange wording, but Thomas Party beat from his half). Two attempts hit the target. Two points Opta categorizes as Big Chance. These are moments when, according to the delightful definition of company analysts, “there are no reasonable reasons for the ball not to hit the goal”. The total danger of all strokes is 1.1xG.
“Liverpool”: eight hits in total, four of the limits of the penalty, four distant. Two of them are blocked. Not a single shot on target. One Big Chance, the total sharpness of all strokes is 0.5xG. Perhaps you need visualization? No problem, here is a screenshot. After a couple of paragraphs with decoding, it looks quite dynamic – if you look closely.
So, “Atletico” won the case and did not allow “Liverpool” almost nothing. This was the content of the work for an anthology. Below are the details.
Why it was that way: Trent’s bad day
Of course, the Madrid team prepared in detail. On the eve of the game, Saul called the Liverpool midfielders “hunting dogs” that the coaching staff prepared the players in detail for this style: “They are incredibly pressured, but even if they do not take the ball, then seven players rush back. They are most likely to go from defense to attack, but when an opponent defends deeply, it is harder for them. We know about their weaknesses and want to hurt as much as possible. ” But Jürgen Klopp prepared something interesting.
Klopp obviously wanted to give Alexander as much as possible freedom and approached the task creatively. Trent did not find himself on the left edge, but otherwise – moved around the field. Depending on the phase of the game, Henderson and Fabinho took his position. If Trent went to the center in front of someone else’s penalty, from the playmaker on the flank, turning into a classic playmaker, Henderson went to the edge and played high, as Trent himself does. Another option – fullback climbed to someone else’s half of the field during the build-up. In this case, Fabinho became the rightmost defender.
Klopp’s idea worked. In the first half, Liverpool completed 12 awnings – eight of them were filed by Alexander-Arnold (six from the game). Given that this is the most dangerous in terms of
canopies Liverpool player, alignment for Atlético so-so. Trent also freely advanced the ball into the attack. 22 passes from his 47 in the first half were made in the attacking third. This is not just the best result in the team, but the best with a margin of almost two times. During the break, Simeone went to a major reshuffle: he removed Lemar and released Llorente, which led to a change of several positions. Llorente went to the right, Coca to the center, and Saul to the left. All because of the freedom of Alexander-Arnold.
Photo: Mateo Villalba / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images
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Replacing during the break is bold, but in fact, Simeone could well be late with this substitution if Trent had time to take advantage of the freedom that he had. Partly, Atlético was lucky: he just didn’t have any service. Simultaneously with the excellent game of the hosts in the air (for the whole match they did not lose a single combat single combat in their own penalty box, but won two in a strange one), this led to the fact that the flank game did not bring Liverpool the usual moments.
Why else everything was just like that: Atletico pressure
In the second half, there were even more canopies (21 at Liverpool, 10 of them were made by Trent), but these were already ne_te_navisy. I mean, not the well-thought-out innings under which the area on the flank is cleared so that he can prepare, but the forwards meanwhile fill the goalkeeper. These were awnings given from and to the struggle. In the second half, “Atletico”, not counting the offsets, made 40 defensive actions. The intensity of the pressure at which not to lose the ball is almost impossible. And Liverpool lost: 20 casualties in half, five in its half of the field. Simeone no longer relied on the fact that one of the rival leaders would not play. Saul and Llorente are more closed flanks than Lemar and Koke. If the game was closed before the break, then after it became even more closed.
It was not without moments: Salah did not hit with his head after giving Gomez, Morata did not hit the ball after a counterattack. But that’s almost all, the game was totally closed. Despite the fact that one of the participants in the match – without a couple of minutes the champion of England, the record holder of everything and the current winner of the Champions League, who wants to open the game – this is a huge achievement.
Photo: Eric Verhoeven / Soccrates / Getty Images
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It remains to add only one detail, without which the course of the match would be completely different. “Atletico” could not have been so cool to block the center and at the same time to impose such an intense struggle on the flanks without clever pressure performed by forwards. Simeone replaced both and, I think, not because I was not satisfied with their game. It’s just that all four players who managed to play in the attack from the hosts ran like crazy. They were required not to impose a fight on the defenders of Liverpool, but to prevent passing to midfielders. This unleashed the hands of the Atletico CPP and allowed it to move more actively to the flanks and enter the selection. Below is a map of the selection attempts performed by three players who during the match played at Simeone in the center of midfield. They would not be able to fight so much on the flanks if the forwards did not help turn off the opponent’s midfield.
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This match does not make Atlético a favorite of the confrontation, but seriously adjusts the impression of the team as a whole.
In the last six games, “Atletico” have one victory, the minimum over “Granada”. And also: a draw with an outsider of the Leganes League, a defeat from Real Madrid and Eibar, a relegation from the cup from Leonessa and a draw with Valencia. The team is out of order as much as is possible for the team run by Diego Simeone. Injuries, poor defense at standards, poor performance (in all types of attacks: positional, quick, from standards). “Atletico” even plays on hold worse than in previous years. Here is the context of the game with Liverpool.
“Atletico” was not surprised in the sense that it was all the familiar typical team of Simeone (its best version). But he was surprised – because for a couple of months the team rarely looked like itself.
Atlético was itself and did not allow Liverpool to be itself. In the second leg it will be much harder. Having the experience of this match, with such work of the Madrid forwards on defense and such a quality of selection on the flanks, Klopp will be able to prepare counterarguments.
And finally – just a photo of the performance of Atletico fans before the match. It is beautiful that the bear is depicted on it. This is a symbol of Madrid (it is also on the emblem of the club and the city) and is like a sign of a return to roots. Atlético chose the best moment to become himself.
Photo: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno / Getty Images
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The material used data Opta.
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