• Simeone.Iguala his worst league start and loses Joao Felix

With the unused score, Morata had one of the best chances against Valencia in the first half. The Madrid received inside the area, well profiled to shoot with the left-handed but, instead of throwing with the bad leg, he tried to adorn himself with the outside of the good one. The ball ended tame in the hands of Cillessen. Simeone did not talk about that particular play, but he could be thinking about it when he said that his strikers should be "simpler with resolutions . " «Surely one day he will be hit with the knee and he will enter». But at the moment the ball does not enter and Atlético equals its worst scoring start in the last half century.

In the first nine league games, Atlético has only eight goals, its worst balance of the last 50 years. In the 1984-85 and 1989-90 seasons he also added eight . To find a worse harvest you have to go back to 1968-69, when by now you had only got four (three from Irureta and one from Gárate). In the last six days he has only scored three goals and, one of them, that of Diego Costa against Valencia, was a penalty. In four crashes he has kept the counter to zero. There are days, as before Valladolid, in which nothing comes out, but others, such as the first part against Valencia, where what fails is the aim.

The Atletico finishes little and bad. It is the 13th in total shots (10.4 per game) and in shots on goal (3.1). It is the sixth team that needs the most shots to score (11.8). Less than 30% of their shots go between the three suits ... Against Valencia, Simeone took a step forward in the first part: in attack he went on to play with three centrals, left the left wing for Saul and the right for Arias, with Joao Felix looking to hurt inside and Koke doing liaison. Atletico dominated, finished 11 times before the break, but only two went to the door and the only goal came from a penalty.

According to the UnderStat advanced statistics website, Atletico is the third team in the League that has more problems to turn the chances it generates into a goal. The expected goal metric evaluates the probability that a team has to score based on variables such as goal distance, shooting angle, game situation or rival position. Based on this, the rojiblancos add 12.79 expected goals but have only scored eight (4.79 less). Only Leganés (-6,16) and Celta (-5,16) are less effective for the goal.

Of the 50 players who have had more goal options at this start of the year, Morata is the fourth that has had more problems with the goal. Of 2.66 expected goals, only one has scored, the victory against Getafe. His current record (-1.66) is only behind Luuk de Jong (-3.80), Iago Aspas (-2.83) and Youssef En-Nesyri (-2) . The Madrid landed with good foot last year, but in this one he has lost the keys. Among all competitions he has only scored one goal in just over seven hours of play (439 minutes).

Nor does Diego Costa respond yet. The Spanish-Brazilian, who in his last season before leaving for Chelsea averaged almost 0.8 goals per game between the League and the Champions League, has only been two in nine games this season. Since his return, the average has plummeted to 0.2, but his problem goes beyond the aim: with ball he emboldens the plays and without him he is not generating advantages either. When they were to take a step forward to cover Griezmann's exit , neither of the two rojiblancos scorer is performing at his level.

Neither Joao Felix , still intermittent, nor Koke, whose job is not to mark but to conduct the orchestra, give that fluidity that he is not having either. If Atlético endures in the noble zone of the table it is because it is still a wall behind (five goals received, the second best of the five major European leagues), although the 16 points equal the worst start of the Simeone era.

The restless drought and this week he has two exams at home, where he has already yielded almost as many points (6) as last year (9): in the Champions League he receives Leverkusen and in the Athletic League, an even rougher defense against the worst drought of the last half century.

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  • Diego Costa
  • Koke
  • Joao Felix
  • Valladolid
  • Iago Aspas
  • Atlético de Madrid
  • First division
  • Copa del Rey
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