Atletico Madrid in freefall: La Liga giants need to bounce back quickly to salvage their season

When Atletico Madrid won the 2020-21 La Liga title, it was expected that the Rojiblancos would dominate the next few years at the top of the Spanish top-flight. Real Madrid had lost the chance to retain their La Liga title on a chastening final day of the league, and subsequently Zinedine Zidane resigned as their manager once again.

Barcelona were in a bad place, even more so than Real. The Blaugrana lost the league title due to a string of bad results, lost Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain, and their financial mess was laid bare for the entire world to see. They were in such a mess that they even had to ship Antoine Griezmann to Atletico to register new signings!

Meanwhile, the Rojiblancos entered the season on the back of a strong finish to last season. Their roster was bolstered by shrewd signings such as Rodrigo De Paul, Matheus Cunha and above all, Antoine Griezmann.

They started the season well and were beaten only once at the hands of Alaves and this excellent run continued until matchday 15 (28 November). Then, surprisingly, their wheels just came off in December, with Atletico losing four consecutive games in La Liga! Since then, Real Madrid have taken charge of the title race and haven't looked back, with only Sevilla going neck and neck with Los Blancos.

It's not like they have faltered against the big guns in the league. The story has been similar against the minnows of the league as well. Atletico have lost five of their last nine La Liga games. Two of those losses came against Mallorca and Granada, both of whom are flirting with relegation at the moment.

In their title-winning season in 2013-14, they conceded a mere 26 goals. Since then, the sequence of goals conceded per season in the league is as follows - 29, 18, 27, 22, 29, 27, 25.

The last time Simeone's team conceded 30+ goals in a league season was in his first full season in charge of Atletico in 2012-13. Even then, they were the stingiest defense in La Liga conceding 31 goals. Right now, their defensive record stands at 33 goals conceded in 23 games! At this rate, Atletico are likely to concede more than 50 goals this season!

Reasons for Atletico's struggles and what needs to change immediately

It's not like Atletico's problems aren't for everyone to see. Their primary concern has been the fitness of their best defender, Jose Gimenez. He has only been fit for 13 La Liga starts this season. And until that horror showing against Barcelona, whenever Gimenez last started for Simeone's side in La Liga this season, they have either won or drawn a game.

Similar has been the case with Stefan Savic, who has been their second-best defender this season. He has only started 15 LaLiga games, and he and Gimenez have started only 10 games together. So the first order of business is for Simeone to get his preferred centre-back pair to start games together.

But this is not the only problem at hand. The Rojiblancos have only started playing in the second half or in situations when their backs are against the walls. Against Valencia a few days ago, they only woke up after going two goals down.

Similar was the case against Barcelona last week when they started playing after conceding their fourth goal. And against Getafe this weekend, they required a late Mario Hermoso stunner to seal all three points after their defense conceded two penalties. They need to be proactive from the start of games and control them better.

Atletico have not been able to keep up their intensity for the whole 90 minutes. Coupled with the injury issues to key players, their season is almost on the verge of being a disaster. However, all is not lost at the moment.

They just need to get Griezmann fit and firing and integrate him into the starting lineup to get their attack strengthened. More importantly, they also have to make sure Savic and Gimenez start almost every game from now onwards. The rest depends on how well they cope with the mental pressure of salvaging their season.

Their next three La Liga games are against the bottom six teams and they should ideally register big wins to reignite their season. Already out of the Copa Del Rey, they are most likely to go trophy-less this season. But the least they can do is rescue their season by finishing in the top-four.

With the stature and history of the club, Atletico need to finish in the top four to play in the Champions League next season. The race to finish in the top-four is likely to go down to the wire, and it's time Atletico rose from their slumber and started dominating matches as they used to.