Celta slow down the title parade

Full time: Atleti 2-2 Celta

Venue: Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid.

As I try to do now, I'll give my initial thoughts from the match, watch it back, and see what else I have to add.

A tactical trend I'll mention right off the bat is the Coudet, the Celta coach, has his team play a brand of football not often seen in Spain, especially not by the "smaller" clubs. Best way I can describe it simply is there are two distinct parts of the team, attack and defense. Midfield isn't much of a thing, as it's composed of one holding player (Tapia), one 8/10 hybrid (Suarez), two wingers, and two strikers. You then have the usual back four of Martin, Murillo, Araujo, and Mallo. Based on his age and the fact that he's Argentine, I'm going to wager that Coudet has been influenced by Marcelo Bielsa, and it shows in the football Celta play. Like Leeds, it's a style that more or less requires top players, or you'll see consistently inconsistent results. Both teams are also currently 10th in their respective leagues after positive results today.

Tactically, I want to point out an issue I noticed quite early in the game, which was that Celta overloaded the wide areas and Atleti couldn't cope. It shouldn't be a surprise, given what I just said about the lack of a midfield, that Celta would pour numbers forward out wide. Both Celta goals, and to be fair the Atleti goals were the same, were from getting the ball wide and whipping it central.

Another trend I've noticed of late is Atleti conceding first. The prior three games against Eibar, Valencia and Cadiz, they were able to overcome that deficit. Personally, I view it as favorable refereeing and riding momentum. In the Eibar game, it was 1-1 until late on when the ref gave them a pen. Likewise, against Cadiz, Atleti should have faced a penalty for what was a hand ball by Koke, but for some reason the ref overturned it. They then took over and won. What I'm saying here is it's not like they've been convincing of late, and the defense that once looked rock solid is clearly vulnerable. It's not even like they've faced anyone good in this stretch. For me, one reason for this is the system isn't working with certain players out. Perfect example today was Llorente playing RWB and Felipe as the left sided CB. Lodi as well has looked poor at LWB, though he did get the assist on the second goal. But yeah, Kondogbia bossed the midfield, Suarez did his thing getting on the end of crosses, and Llorente was good at RWB despite being better as a CM. Correa wasn't great, which is typical given he usually shines as the spark off the bench when Felix goes off. They also missed Lemar, who's been having a renaissance season after struggling for a long while.

The question, I suppose, is why did Atleti not win? Well, firstly, they didn't come out as the aggressor. When the other team has more possession, plays more attacking, and creates the better chances, you probably don't deserve to win. The two goals were by a mile the best attacking moves for Atleti. The PPDA was also lower for Celta (8 vs 11.6), which backs up my comment about being the aggressor. I wouldn't say Celta were great, either. They were good, but only 7 total shots (2 on target) is by no means an attacking masterclass.

Now, time to cover the missing guys. The way the system works is it's not a perfect 3-5-2, Allegri/Conte style. It's more a hybrid 4-4-2, and Hermoso linking up with Carrasco on the left side makes it work. That's why I mention Felipe having a stinker (subbed at HT, which I was calling for 30 minutes in). Goal #1, decent ball movement, leads to Mallo hanging out unmarked (Lodi) in wide area on right side, hits first time cross. Felipe loses his man, Santi Mina, and he heads past Oblak, who couldn't do anything to stop it. Second goal; Celta building up again, two guys make run behind both Gimenez and Lodi, one of them gets the through ball sent in to him, he squares and a slow to react (or injured) Savic can't get to Facundo Ferreyra, who runs between the Serb and Llorente on the back post. If you're being real, Oblak shouldn't be allowing that cross to come in. I called Jaume on it when Atleti did it to Valencia, though that was from a corner, so I'll do it here as well. The ball is cut across the 6 yard box, and if he's on his stuff, he would be proactive and cut it out rather than relying on one of the defenders.

Just to end on a positive, since I've watched parts of the game back and there's not too much really going on, I'll praise the lads that played a role in the goals. Kondogbia picks up the ball in the middle of the park from a Lodi header, plays it over to Correa, who finds a streaking Llorente on the right wing. He plays a delicious ball past three Celta defenders, on a plate for Suarez to finish first time. Great team goal. Second goal comes from two brilliant passes. First is Kondogbia, who again picks up the ball in midfield with time to act. He lofts the ball over the Celta defense to Lodi, who's making a good run. The Brazilian then one-times another pinpoint cross to Suarez, who once again finishes past Blanco.

Looking forward, the team will need to break down an annoying Granada side this weekend to avoid a winless streak. They then face Levante twice, Chelsea, and Villarreal, all during the month of February. Not gonna lie, that's a bit much, especially with guys missing for various reasons. Into March, they're set for a rematch with the city rival, so that's fun. If you go by the underlying numbers, Barcelona should be much closer to the top spot. I'm keen to see how Atleti handle the pressure as the season starts to approach its peak.