Alex Baena, Antoine Griezmann, Thiago Almada, and Julian Alvarez (left to right) embracing each other after a goal. Photo from Ricardo Nogueira

This past Saturday Atletico Madrid came away with a solid 3-1 victory over Levante. This game showed how commanding Atletico is at home, but also shined light on some of the recurring weak points in the squad this season. 

To start with some of the positive takeaways from this game, Giuliano Simeone and Marcos Llorente were the best players on the pitch once again. Atletico had really nice attacking play through the wings with Giuliano, Llorente, Pablo Barrios and Alex Baena, putting constant pressure on Levante’s defense, which led to that scrappy first goal. 

This is what Atletico does great against lower-tier teams. They are able to attack convincingly through the wings by sending a fury of crosses into the box, while also controling the tempo of the game with Barrios and Koke in the midfield. This relentless pressure, alongside Fondo Sur’s relentless chants leads to the Metropolitano being a place where opponents come to suffer.

Another great positive from this game was Antoine Griezmann. Griezmann made an instant impact on this game, scoring after just 30 seconds after being subbed on, and tallying on a brace that put the game to bed. Once he came on, the course of the game completely switched and he was able to pick up balls in the midfield and help the tempo of the game in favor of Atletico. In my opinion he should’ve been the MOTM, not Julian Alvarez who has not been at his best the past two games. 

Now let’s get a little nitpicky with the game. We can get picky about a lot of things with this game, like how Alvarez was again not fit, and how Ruggeri really needs to step up his performances to cement his spot in the starting 11. 

However, the main concern with this game was how this result was only 3-1, and in fact could’ve been a much closer 3-2 or even 3-3 if it weren’t for a fantastic Oblak save on a corner in the 76th minute, and a goal getting called back after VAR ruled a Levante player was offsides.

Do not get me wrong, from the outside a 3-1 victory is a very convincing win, however with the amount of chances we were creating and the amount of pressure we were putting on Levante’s defense, there is no explanation as to how we couldn’t have tallied on another three goals. 

Atletico had 21 corners, a LaLiga record this season, yet they did not convert a single one. In fact, not a single one led to even a shot on goal. In no world should a team not be able to execute a corner with Sorloth, Gimenez, and Hancko awaiting the delivery. This has to change, especially when Levante had just four corners, one of them leading to a goal and another leading to Oblak having to make a world-class save. 

Giuliano Simeone nutmegging Levante defender. Photo from Giuliano Simeone’s instagram

Let’s also take a look at the typical issue with Atletico. Every time Atletico plays a lower quality team, the same story is told. Like I’ve said multiple times, Atletico’s attack was super promising, creating danger and producing chance after chance, yet nothing found the back of the net. They knocked, knocked, and knocked, but no one was ever home. I would also like to give credit where credit is due, and applaud Levante’s goalie Matthew Ryan for a stellar performance in net, but this team needs to finish more of their chances. 

It is always so hard for this team to finish their chances when they play these lower tier teams, yet when it comes the time to play Real Madrid or another top level team in LaLiga or Champions League, they seem to have no problem finishing their breakfast. Of course the obvious reason for this is the fact that when they play lower-tier teams, their opponents play a much more defensive game and keep more players in the box to try and secure a one point draw. However, there should be no reason that with 25 shots, 21 corners, and non stop crosses going into the box, the score shouldn’t be 5-1.  

At the end of the day, three points is three points and we now sit just six points behind first place. Although some aspects of this game did disappoint me, we still played very well.

The only thing that worries me is if we are fit enough to go up against some of Europe’s best teams in the Champions League.