Chapter 111 How to build the front line

Fans are talking about the team's signings, believing that the team has basically made up for the absence of Diego Costa and Felipe, and apart from doubts about the goalkeeper position, most people believe that Atletico Madrid's strength has not dropped significantly compared to last season.

The entire midfield basically maintains the overall structure, and on the forward line, there is Li Qingshan, and Simeone does not need to worry much in the forward position.

But contrary to what the outside world expected, Simeone does have some troubles right now.

The team has played three warm-up games in the United States, with a big win at the Atletico Madrid and a consistent goal from Li Qingshan, so it stands to reason that Simeone should be happy with the team's condition by now.

But Simeone, as head coach, can't afford to be complacent and ignore the team's problems just because of a few big wins in warm-up games. What's more, the opponents in these three warm-up games are not strong, and the big win doesn't mean anything.

During this time, Simeone's main observation was the team's forward combination, in Atletico Madrid's 442 system, Li Qingshan undoubtedly occupied a main striker position, and the remaining main position was to be produced by Griezmann and Mandzukic.

In the first week after arriving in the United States, the team played a warm-up game against the local Major League Soccer team San Jose Earthquakes. In this game, Simeone arranged for Mandzukic and Li Qingshan to partner in the attack.

Mandzukic is a very team player, and his name is actually very clear about his characteristics.

Mandzukic, first of all, he is very "slow", he is one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, and he is not fast. But his athleticism and running ability are absolutely top-notch, and Simeone likes the type of player Mandzukic, who has an absolutely high level of dedication and mental quality and mental strength.

In fact, his "assist" offensive ability is also good, his team cooperation attributes are very high, and his ability to play the ball is good. And he has a solid "foundation", and his header and foot are good.

In the first game, he and Li Qingshan started as partners, and assisted Li Qingshan to score twice, and it can be seen that he and Li Qingshan have chemistry on the field. And when the two high school forwards are pressed in the opponent's penalty area, it is also a great deterrent to the opponent.

Mandzukic is still very happy with this, Simeone. Simeone's other new signing, Frenchman Greezmann, who cost the team 30 million euros to bring in.

It's not that Griezmann didn't perform well, he came on as a second-half substitute for Mandzukic in the first warm-up game to partner Li Qingshan up front.

In fact, this is the main forward match expected by Simeone, Griezmann is fast, explosive, ball control, shooting skills are very good, when he and Li Qingshan partner in the forward line, he can not only give full play to his speed advantage, in the counterattack to play a powerful role, he can also pull to the side, for Li Qingshan to pass the ball to create opportunities.

Such a combination of one high and one fast should be an ideal match, but when Li Qingshan and Griezmann are on the field at the same time, Atletico Madrid's attack is not as effective as Mandzukic and Li Qingshan's high combination on the field.

In the San Jose earthquake, Li Qingshan scored two goals, and Griezmann, who came on as a substitute in the second half, also scored two goals, and Atletico Madrid beat the opponent 4-0.

Then on August 1, Atletico Madrid played América Mexico, and this time Atletico Madrid won 4-0 again, with Li Qingshan scoring two goals and Mandzukic netting a goal, both of whom played just 45 minutes. At that time, Griezmann, who was arranged by Simeone to play the whole game, did not score anything.

On 7 August, Atletico Madrid faced a slightly stronger opponent, Galatasaray of the Turkish Super League.

In the first half, Atletico Madrid's forward combination was a double-high - Li Qingshan partnered Mandzukic. In the first half, Atletico's two strikers provided assists for each other, leading Galatasaray 2-0.

In the second half, Simeone replaced Mandzukic with Antoine Griezmann, and Atletico Madrid's attack was constipated.

It wasn't obvious when he played against a weak team before, but when he played against Galatasaray, you could see that Griezmann was not mature and stable.

His desire to shoot is so strong that even when he gets the ball on the wing, crosses are not Griezmann's first choice, he often chooses to cut inside with the ball himself and shoot straight away.

In this way, Atletico Madrid's attack was basically over at the feet of Griezmann, and Li Qingshan, who was at the front, did not have many chances to touch the ball at all.

If Antoine Griezmann can score with a shot like he did in the first warm-up game, and can stabilize that scoring momentum, then he has no problem making that choice.

However, after half-time, Griezmann frequently cut inside and shot into the goal but frequently hit anti-aircraft guns, and it can be seen that his form is not very stable.

This is also Griezmann's flaw, he has had a lot of highlights, but he has also been out of shape. After last season's winter break, he even had a goalscoring drought that lasted for more than two months.

In Real Sociedad's Champions League last season, Real Sociedad lost five and drew one in the group stage, and only one point was eliminated, and Griezmann failed to score a goal in these six group games.

His international debut was a case in point, as he seemed to be more immersed in his individual technical performances, and the problem was that he showed off his technical skills, but he seemed to be out of the team's system throughout the game and missed a lot of chances. It was like the second half of the game against Galatasaray.

It begs the question: is he ready to play at a high level?

After Atletico Madrid announced that it would directly meet Griezmann's contract liquidated damages of 30 million euros, many Spanish media expressed doubts about this transfer, and the reason was based on this. 30 million euros is not worth mentioning for many big teams, but it was Atletico Madrid who chose to make the shot, which shows that Griezmann, despite his excellent skills, still has some obvious shortcomings.

Simeone is thinking about another thing, last season Griezmann was the top scorer in Real Sociedad despite constantly breaking his personal goal record, and he was second only to Neymar in the league in the scorer list, so it can be said that he is the best player in other teams in La Liga except Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. But as a technical wide player, he only has three assists!

This is obviously too little, you must know that even Li Qingshan, who is in the center position, has nine assists.

And Simeone's primary purpose in bringing in Griezmann is to use his technical advantages on the wing to create space for crosses, rather than allowing him to frequently cut inside to shoot - such a success rate is really not efficient compared to Li Qingshan's grabbing points in the middle.

This season, Simeone has decided to develop tactics around Li Qingshan, and the training during this period is also based on this, and the entire team members need to create opportunities to send the ball to Li Qingshan's head and feet according to the characteristics of Li Qingshan's running.

Li Qingshan enjoyed this kind of treatment once when he was in Guangzhou Evergrande, so he quickly entered the role, and the other players of Atletico Madrid also knew Li Qingshan's ability very well after working with Li Qingshan for half a game, and they had nothing to say about the coach's arrangement.

Simeone didn't talk to Griezmann about these tactical things, and the team's tactical training during training was also based on Li Qingshan's tactical drills. In the first two warm-up games, it can be said that Griezmann is a newcomer and does not have enough tacit understanding with the team, but in the third warm-up game, he has been training with the team for half a month, and at this time Griezmann still has no willingness to cross, at least in these dozens of minutes, Simeone has not seen Griezmann have any crosses!

Simeone frowned.