Atletico Madrid have lost the fire in their belly, says Sky Sports pundit Terry Gibson
Tuesday 22 November 2016 16:24, UK
Atletico Madrid have lost the fire in their belly and need to make better use of their summer signings, says Terry Gibson.
Diego Simeone's side were beaten by their local rivals Real in Saturday's Madrid derby - the final meeting at the Vicente Calderon Stadium - with a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick seeing them fall to a second successive league defeat.
Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Gibson believes Atletico have lost the motivation that propelled them to the La Liga title in the 2013/14 season and was critical of substitutions made by the manager.
"The fire in their belly has gone a bit, it really has," Gibson said on the La Liga Weekly podcast.
"First of all, I was really surprised to see Fernando Torres. That experiment has to stop. When you spend €32m on Kevin Gameiro who's been in pretty good form, he should be starting.
"I think the reason Torres played on Saturday was to give them a bit more power up front and Simeone believes that Torres still has the same big-game performances in him. He got the nod to be a six-foot centre forward who puts himself about, but it didn't work.
"I then thought it was a mistake when they were at their best to make two changes in the middle of that. I didn't think there was an awful lot between the two teams in the first - Real Madrid maybe just shaded it - and for the first ten minutes of the second half, it looked like the Atletico equaliser was only a matter of time and then Simeone made changes.
"I can understand one, I can't criticise him and say that he shouldn't have played Torres, I felt like it was the right idea then to bring on Gameiro but to then take of Gabi, put Saul Niguez in midfield and Angel Correa on the right, who never got involved in the game at all after that, and then to concede the second goal with terrible defending - then that's when Atletico really deteriorated.
"Simeone said post-match that he was disappointed, which is probably an understatement, in their reaction to going two goals behind with still so much time in the game to be played. He was disappointed with their attitude and from then on, Real Madrid controlled possession.
"I don't think 3-0 flattered them but I think the nature of the last 20, 25 minutes when it was easy for Real Madrid, the game was won. That made it look a lot worse for Atletico and there are a number of issues there."
Gibson also believes that Simeone should be looking to utilise more of his new talent on the bench to revitalise the side, and questions if Atletico should have pursued former striker Diego Costa in the summer.
"I look at the signings that they have made and some of them are good players, but he doesn't use enough of them," the Sky Sports pundit added. "Gameiro was on the bench, we've all forgotten about Nico Gaitan who they paid 20-odd million Euros for and he's not getting a game.
"When I look back to the successful period, when they were winning the La Liga title, it was Diego Costa and Raul Garcia. Now you compare that with what they have at the moment, that aggression is missing.
"Antoine Griezmann is a fantastically gifted player but I do wonder if they had saved the money from Sime Vrsaljko, Gameiro and Gaitan, they could have got Costa.
"You're talking 60 or 70 million Euros there and I'm pretty sure Chelsea might have listened then if that had been the figure offered, so perhaps the recruitment hasn't been the same and the team has changed.
"You see Garcia for Athletic Bilbao over the weekend and he was a real nuisance that [Atletico] don't have anymore. They don't score anymore goals from set-pieces, which made them successful, and they don't keep clean sheets anymore either."
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