Another Brick In The Wall

Ralf Rangnick labeled Atletico Madrid “The champions in that style of football” after his Manchester United side suffered a knockout exit in the Champions League against Diego Simeone’s side. “It’s not so easy, you have to break through that wall somehow.”

For a while, Atletico Madrid’s defensive wall had seemed to have been lost under the ruins as Simeon’s dogs of war conceded one goal after another in La Liga.

The first leg against Manchester United at the Wanda Metropolitano was some kind of a second life for their defensive solidity and probably their best performance of the season up till that game. However good Atletico were, an Anthony Elanga equalizer made their trip to Old Trafford tougher. Needing a goal to go through.

Starting the match, Atletico continued with their 5–3–2 with Antoine Griezmann partnering Joao Felix in-front of a midfield three consisting of Rodrigo De Paul, Hector Herrera and Koke.

On the other hand, Manchester United’s hybrid 4–3–3/4–4–1–1 had a clear idea in possession. A dropping Cristiano Ronaldo was to occupy the space outside of Atletico’s trio in midfield to help United progress the ball.

As United shifted the ball from one side to another — shifting the Atletico midfield with it — Ronaldo positioned himself well on the outside of Atletico’s midfield, offering a progressive passing option.

The Portuguese forward dropped so deep that none of Atletico’s center backs followed him, and with Elanga and Jadon Sancho high up the wings, Marcos Llorente and Renan Lodi were reluctant to move up and press Ronaldo.

Unlike Ronaldo’s weird roams into midfield in the league, this was actually effective and helped United create their most dangerous chance on the night.

In the build up to Elanga’s chance, Felix was signaling for Koke to pick up Dalot who was just receiving a pass from Raphael Varane….

….as Koke moved up to face Dalot, Ronaldo showed up. Dropping into the space outside of Koke and ready to receive a pass.

Dalot, spotting Lodi coming up to press Ronaldo, dribbled inside past Koke forcing Lodi to move up towards him, and thus freeing Ronaldo.

Now that Lodi was completely out of position and Ronaldo was in his designed position, Atletico were playing catch up, trying to stop the quick United attack. In their rush, their defensive line opened up as Reinildo moved up towards Ronaldo, vacating space for Bruno Fernandes to attack with Jose Maria Gimenez unable to shift because of Elanga. This allowed Ronaldo to find Fernandes….

…..before the United midfielder put in a low cross towards Elanga, only for the Swedish teenager to shoot it straight at Jan Oblak.

In possession United progressed well, but their problems came when they were near Atletico’s box. They failed to create major chances after Elanga’s shot.

Atleti had to change something in their defensive phase and around the 20th minute, Griezmann received a signal from the bench to drop to the right side. Which meant that Atletico moved from the 5–3–2 to…..

….a 5–4–1 with Griezmann on the right and De Paul moving inside to partner Herrera in the center of Atletico’s midfield.

This defensive adjustment helped Atletico slow down United’s progression phase by limiting the space Ronaldo can drop in, and by not providing United’s full backs time on the ball. A good example can be seen straight after Lodi’s goal.

Commencing with their attacking plan, United moved the ball wide in search of a dropping Ronaldo. But this time, Griezmann was on the right hand side rather than in the center circle….

….which meant that when Alex Telles received the ball, Griezmann was blocking the passing lane into the dropping Ronaldo and Telles had to go back.

Ronaldo’s free pocket outside of Atleti’s midfield three was no longer there, he was marshalled whenever he tried to drop into the aforementioned space. Here, De Paul can keep track of Ronaldo because Griezmann who was usually defending the right side is in the center of the midfield four.

The other part this defensive switch affected was United’s progression through their full backs. In the first half, moving the ball from one side to another was hectic for Atletico’s midfield three as they had to translate horizontally, but the ball is always faster than the player. As a result, United’s full backs had extra seconds before De Paul or Koke moved up to face them.

After moving to the 5–4–1, Atletico’s midfield had to cover less space horizontally as a switch of play here from United’s defensive line….

…..would find Griezmann in the wing area defending against Telles…..

…..then a switch back to the other side to find the dropping Ronaldo…..

…..doesn’t allow United to progress vertically because Koke has to cover less distance to move out and face Ronaldo. Moving up with Koke here is Reinildo and that was another feature of Atleti’s defending in the second half.

The wide center backs, mainly Stefan Savic, didn’t allow the United players trying to move in between the lines any time on the ball. Starting with the dropping Ronaldo…..

….and any other player trying to make runs behind the Atletico midfield whether that’s Fred….

….or Paul Pogba….

As the minutes passed by, Atletico’s defensive wall felt more indestructible. “It was frustrating difficult for us in the second half, we tried everything.” Rangnick said after the game. “We had two or three moments after set pieces, but from normal play we didn’t produce that many chances.”

The defensive adjustments from Atletico were simple, but they denied United a smoother progression of the ball and with no progression, there were no major chances created.

Atletico’s wall stood firm, but for United it was just another brick in the wall.