Simeone's melancholy: a praise that makes Real Madrid uncomfortable and the longing for that Diego Costa

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There is no doubt that kickback is an art.

A lethal resource to achieve the sole purpose of football: the goal and the victory.

However, its splendor, its beauty, usually varies according to the intellectual author and the architect.

After losing his sixteenth derby (10 wins and 11 draws) and eight points off the top,

many things came to

A handful of nostalgia and old memories about that past in which his Atlético, as promised upon his arrival, at that press conference at the late Vicente Calderón, on December 27, 2011, spent them in a different way.

Much more, when he met, almost by chance, that

who gave meaning to everything.

"I want an aggressive, strong, battle-hardened, counterattacking and fast team. That which always made Atletico fans fall in love with us. We are going in search of what our history was," was his first sermon before setting sail, with the obvious influence of

.

After 11 years between successes and the occasional storm, the wind has forced him to change.

To try to discover other ways to reach the shore between smiles.

And he did.

The best test is the 20/21 League, clinging to that metamorphosis that ended up being the key to success in Valladolid.

The fact is that last night, from the lectern of the Cívitas Metropolitano, Simeone looked back because Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid had seemed familiar to him.

The same thing happened not even a year ago, during the Santiago Bernabéu derby.

That night,

and

settled the matter in two counterattacks.

This time, despite the threat of rebellion, already in the twilight, it was

and

who traced the script.

"The forcefulness is wonderful and to see a team that defends in a low block and goes on the counterattack like that... It reminds me of the team we had with [Diego] Costa, when they told us we played defensively."

Simeone's reflection, apart from a pointed dart to that critical vision of the time towards his team, where the effectiveness and poison from set pieces was defined as a vulgar resource, and the counterattack was seen more as a defect than as a virtue.

"If Simeone says that we have defended well in low block, I say thank you, because I think he is a compliment," replied Ancelotti, aware of the double trajectory of the bullet.

Griezmann's perfect counter in Munich

But, can this Atlético recover that essence?

Is there something that prevents you from using that style again?

To begin with, there is no one in this squad with that indestructible aura that

conveyed at the height of the 2013/14 season, when he scored 36 clean-strike goals.

Stride, speed and, above all, goal at the service of an idea.

He was 25 years old.

The closest thing is

, sponsored by Costa himself, but, at 23, he lacks that punch and determination that made his compatriot the striker of the moment.

In the type for whom Simeone has insisted the most, until that second advent of Griezmann.

Not even with

, who longed for a second chance before Morata's arrival, in 2019.

The Frenchman was the author of the most iconic counterattack in the Cholo stage.

Yes, the one who managed to put down the siege of Munich, heading for the 2016 Champions League final. But Antoine, like Atlético himself, has changed.

Now, at 31, he has a different way of seeing things on the pitch.

Far are the 32 goals of that magical season.

does not have that gift that those had and

, excellent with the ball (and disappeared in the derby), lacks the necessary ammunition.

Matheus Cunha tries to leave Alaba.JAVIER SORIANAFP

Nor does the medullary have that muscle of those days of the past.

Everything was articulated around

and

.

Sometimes

or

.

This metamorphosis of the rojiblanco game, in search of another idea alien to that past, has drawn a template with different tastes and virtues.

Beyond

's precision

, now central.

After the derby, Simeone meditated on everything that had happened before his eyes.

About that art of the counterattack that his Atlético embroidered years ago, and that he was always under suspicion.

Clearly times have changed.

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