MARTIN SAMUEL: Stop wailing about Atletico Madrid's dirty tricks
MARTIN SAMUEL: Unlike Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, Sir Alex Ferguson would NEVER have moaned about Diego Simeone’s tactics… he’d just beat Atletico Madrid and show there is a better way instead
- Atletico Madrid were roundly criticised for their defensive tactics in the first leg
- Manchester City beat them 1-0 and found it tough going against strong defence
- It would be lovely if every team played like City, but it could also be very dull
- The very best way to denounce Atletico Madrid’s style is to go out and defeat it
Sir Alex Ferguson never had a problem with Wimbledon. Others did. In the days of Dave Bassett and his like-minded successors, there were plenty who moaned about their long ball, anti-football.
Ferguson took a different view. He recognised that Wimbledon had good players, and admired their resilience and underdog defiance. And he knew the bottom line. The way to expose the shortcomings of a long ball game was to beat it.
In the main, he did. One of his first matches as Manchester United manager was a 1-0 defeat at Plough Lane — Vinnie Jones scored — and Wimbledon beat his team in each of his first three seasons.
Atletico Madrid were criticised for the way they approached the first leg against Man City
The best way to hit back at Diego Simeone’s defence-first style is simply to beat it on the pitch
But, still, no complaints. And as Ferguson’s United evolved, so they became grittier and more resilient, too. And so, by the time Wimbledon ceased to exist as a Premier League entity, Ferguson’s record in all competitions against them was: W17 D8 L7.
He will still have been ticked off by those seven defeats, but he never resented the way they were achieved. He will feel the same about Atletico Madrid, too. He won’t like their style of play, he would never seek to emulate it, but he would appreciate that the challenge is to overcome it.
Anyone can denounce Diego Simeone’s methods in a press conference. That isn’t victory. The win is showing there is a better way, which is what Manchester City must do on Wednesday night.
Jurgen Klopp lost and moaned when Atletico removed Liverpool in the Champions League last 16 in 2020. He’s better than that, and so are his team. Wailing about dirty tricks and negative football in defeat is never a good look. Klopp just came across as a rotten loser.
Sir Alex Ferguson never complained about Wimbledon’s rough and ready tactics
There are a lot of myths about Atletico Madrid. The biggest is that they are the poor relations, the underdogs, whenever they step out to play. No, they do not have the financial clout of Spain’s big two, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and certainly not Manchester City, but they have grown significantly in the modern era.
They buy good players; they have a fine, new stadium; they were invited to join the Super League. And they are very experienced in Europe.
It was 2012-13 when Atletico were last uninvolved in the Champions League, and only once in the nine seasons since have they failed to make it out of the group stage. In that period, they have been finalists twice, semi-finalists three times and this is their sixth visit to the quarter-finals. They certainly aren’t Wimbledon.
Maybe that is what attracts the ire. Atletico could be more, could play with panache, ambition, they don’t have to be a crazy gang, with hod-carriers at the heart of midfield. Simeone makes a choice to defend, to disrupt, to play in a way that is an affront to what we perceive as elite football.
City carry a 1-0 advantage into the Wanda Metropolitano where their character will be tested
Yes, but so what? It would be lovely if everyone played like a Pep Guardiola team, but it would also be dull minus the variety. Atletico are outliers in the modern game, which is what makes matches against them compelling.
Frustrating occasions, sometimes, yes. But Sporting Lisbon try to play lovely football and Manchester City swept them off the park in the last round. That isn’t going to happen on Wednesday night.
Guardiola, and his players, know they are in for a test. A test of character as much as technique because Atletico will target any weakness in pursuit of an edge. Look at the way they picked on Jack Grealish in the first leg, and almost got the desired reaction. A team cannot show frailty against Atletico Madrid.
And Ferguson would have relished that challenge. He may have been infuriated by the play-acting, he may have been putting his own pressure on the officials. He certainly would have flagged up Atletico’s reputation in the pre-match press conference, where he always insisted the game really began.
Yet he would have acknowledged there is only ever one way to win against a team like Atletico Madrid; and that is to win.
Pep Guardiola’s side see the Champions League as the holy grail having never won it
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