Atletico Madrid are playing below expectations even though they are the defending champions of La Liga.

Entering the 2021/22 season with the position of La Liga champion, Atletico Madrid is showing a confusing decline. It’s only been January, but Diego Simeone’s teachers and students are almost saying goodbye to their throne.

They were far behind Real Madrid in the rankings. The most practical goal for the Wanda Metropolitano home team is to appear in the top 4.

Los Rojiblancos have never had such a hard time since Diego Simeone took charge of the team in 2011. Simeone’s side have not lived up to expectations this season and there are many reasons for that.

Atletico are playing badly.

Bad defense

It is strange that Atletico’s defense is the Achilles heel that makes them fall. Los Rojiblancos are suffering from weak defense in matches. Careless mistakes in the back opened the door for the opponent to hit the net of Jan Oblak.

Deadlock in attack

Despite the signing of two more strikers last summer, Atletico proved to be stuck in scoring again. The arrivals of Antoine Griezmann and Matheus Cunha did not seem to help the team.

They came to Atletico even causing harm, forcing Simeone to constantly rotate in attack. This makes Atletico not find the best frame.

Many injuries

Jan Oblak, Benjamin Lecomte, Angel Correa, Rodrigo de Paul and Mario Hermoso are among the players who have not been injured this season. Meanwhile, key players such as Marcos Llorente, Griezmann, Joao Felix, Jose Maria Gimenez, Thomas Lemar and Stefan Savic have been hospitalized more than once so far.

Couldn’t find a matching diagram

Simeone used his preferred 5-3-2 formation at the start of the season, but he had to switch to a back four due to injuries and some poor performances. However, the 4-4-2 system also failed to work in the 2-2 draw at Villarreal, so the Argentinian coach switched to a five-man defense.

 Simeone was helpless to find a diagram for Atletico.

The 5-3-2 layout helped Atletico win the title last season, but Simeone’s players are having a hard time adapting to that in the current hei6n5 season.

Key players are in decline

Angel Correa is the only player to stand out this season, while Lemar and Yannick Carrasco are lacking consistency. Luis Suarez also did not maintain the best performance.

Koke has declined, along with the remaining players not contributing anything to the team when having to re-appear.