#3 Over-reliance on set plays
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Atletico Madrid plays a very unique brand of football that may not be everybody’s cup of tea including that of Brazilian legend Pele, who clearly finds Real Madrid more ‘artistic’. Atleti’s style involves collective hard work rather than individual flair (although they do have flair players such as Antonie Griezmann and Saul Niguez), aggressive tackles, compact defending and swift counter attacks.
It is a style that has worked wonders for them as proven by their recent domestic and European successes. But one of their strongest assets in attack is set plays.
Even in the 2014 final, their only goal of the game scored by defender Deigo Godin originated from a corner kick. Dead ball situations have become really important in football and with some really tall players in its ranks, Atletico is more likely to score from them than most other teams. But a boon can also turn into a bane pretty quickly.
There is no fighting the argument that the Red & Whites stripes should look to set plays to score their goals. But an over-reliance on the same could render them one dimensional. And that’s the last thing one would want to be in a Champions League final.
