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It has been six years since Atletico Madrid last clinched the Spanish crown. Six long years of clinging to the status of one of Spain’s best but never the very best.
Ever since Diego Simeone took over, the Rojiblancos have been a steady ship, weathering the storm, staying afloat but they were also, at times, daydreaming.
And while being in the top three in any league for an extended period of time is truly an impressive feat, it’s also quite an infuriating and frustrating one. Finishing second is not bad but hurts more than finishing third, doesn’t it? Obviously, a change was needed.
If Cholo and his troops were to continue down the same path, doing the same things and fielding the same squad, the results would also, in turn, remain mostly the same.
Arguably, that would mean Atletico Madrid hoping for a Barcelona choking in the Champions League or a Real Madrid crisis, both of which are not anomalies as of late, in order to get their chance to shine. But not anymore. This summer came and went but the Colchoneros have used it to the fullest.
The core of the team is gone and new and exciting faces have been brought to compensate, but none of them as exciting as Benfica’s young starlet and now Atletico Madrid’s biggest ever signing, Joao Felix. The young 19-year-old was brought in for a hefty sum of £113m and represents Atletico’s response to losing Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona in a similarly heavy deal.
With such a price tag and undeniable talent on his back, Felix looks set to become the new face of Atletico Madrid, and it couldn’t be more fitting if it wanted to: a young, vibrant star, ready to take the stage by storm.
That sounds like a perfect description of what the team needs, what it has been craving for in these fairly successful but equally stressful times. Out with the old, in with the new is the new motto and who better to lead the charge than Felix.
But it won’t be easy, not in the slightest.
After all, it seems that the responsibility of replacing a marquee name like Griezmann, the man who was Atletico Madrid’s top scorer in every La Liga season he has participated in, is falling on the shoulders of a 19-year-old boy. A kid at the start of his career and a kid who’s about to experience his first steps in the big leagues. Benfica are a great team, a team with rich history no less, but this is definitely a step up for the youngster.
Asking him to reinvent a team of Atletico Madrid’s pedigree all by himself sounds like a tall task despite his potential. Simeone has to be really careful in his approach. Apply enough pressure and he turns into a diamond but put too much and he could break.
The expectation, the pressure, the inexperience and his youthfulness could all play against him if the right steps are not taken.
On paper, however, it looks promising. Felix very much feels like a younger version of Griezmann when everything is said and done. Both have this natural gift of exploiting space in the final third and are mostly played as second strikers. Back in Benfica, Felix was mostly a part of a striker tandem in a 4-4-2 system which is, incidentally, the same one Simeone has been preaching in the Spanish capital ever since he sat on the throne.
He may have lost a prolific goalscorer and a World Cup winner in the French forward but now he has the Portuguese prodigy who’s already showing the early signs of that same lethality in a similar role.
In a total of 43 games for Benfica, the 19-year-old scored 20 goals and assisted 11 in the process. The figures might not be out of this world, but considering that this is only the beginning, they make for a pretty good start.
The ability is certainly there and it’s layered with facets of potential that reach the skies and probably goes even beyond that. But despite all of this, it is far from being a straightforward swap of superstars for Atletico Madrid to proceed as usual.
Putting their hopes in Felix in the long run sounds like a good plan but the foundations have to be set to serve as a springboard and support for the youngster.
How do they do that? That in itself might be a story for a different time but in essence, everyone will have to pull their own weight and then some. It’s fair to assume they will miss Griezmann at first and miss him dearly. Not a single player from their squad has been hitting his numbers on such a consistent season to season basis and it’s unlikely that Felix will, at least not for now.
It would be a foolish thing to assume and sloppy homework by Atletico.
The change of personnel and the signs from pre-season, beating Real 7-3, already suggest the Atletico Madrid of 2019/20 might be far different than the one we saw in 2018/19.
Change is never good by default but this very much feels like a necessary step after years of playing the same old track. The team has been grooving to that tune for years and despite some highs here and there, they hardly represent their ambitions as a top-tier club from Spain.
It does feel, however, like the signing of Felix was exactly what the doctor prescribed.
Let’s wait and see whether it ends up working or not.
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