Atletico are the bad boys of European football.
If Al Davis had run a soccer team, one would expect it to play like Atletico.
Their manager dresses exclusively in black, has a scruffy face with a scruffy beard, and encourages his players to cheat.
Their current striker — Luis Suarez — is a perfect match made in hell for this club. Suarez is without doubt one of the 10 most skilled footballers I’ve ever watched. But even more than his outrageous skill, Suarez’s standout quality has always been his attitude on the pitch. For Ted Lasso’s Danny Rojas, “football is life!” For Luis Suarez, football is far more important than that. Football is survival. Football is war, and Luis Suarez is out there to WIN it. He will kick you. He will taunt you. He will launch racial slurs at you. If you touch him, or come close to touching him, and he loses control of the ball, he will scream in mock agony, throw himself to the ground, in contort in contrived agony. If you happen to REALLY piss him off, he will bite you. As LFC’s own Bill Shankly once said, “Football is not life and death. It’s far more important than that.”
Although Atletico bears some cultural resemblance to Al Davis’s Raiders, unlike most versions of the Raiders, Atletico is actually quite good at playing football. These are the defending La Liga titleists, who have bullied their way into the Spanish oligarchy that had been exclusive to Barcelona and cross-town rivals Real. And you’ll recall that they pushed us out of the Champions League two years ago.
But their success on the pitch follows a formula that fits quite nicely with their Bad Boys culture. Atletico park the bus. They want to stifle, harass, and frustrate you. They utilize world-class players in a formation and approach that looks more like a typical bottom-half Premier League team. Then, when they get the ball, they strike back quickly and with great skill. They not only boast the world-class skills of Suarez, but also the annoying Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, who has returned to Atletico after spending a few years featuring alongside Messi and Suarez in Barcelona.
Arguably, no club is better-suited to both stifle LFC’s strengths and exploit its vulnerabilities.
Nonetheless, at the moment the relentless Reds feel irrepressible. And they will remember well what Atletico did to them two years ago.
It will be interesting to see how much Klopp rotates for this match. There have been only two rest days since the Watford match, but the Reds don’t play again until Sunday at Old Trafford. After Sunday’s match, the next match is a League Cup visit against lower league opponent Preston North End. Tuesday to Sunday is a long enough break to justify Klopp in fielding a very strong team against Atletico, just as he did against Porto ahead of the showdown with Man City.
First, we know that Alisson and Fabinho will start this match. They both flew directly from South America to Madrid this weekend, so that they could avoid any quarantine restrictions upon their return to England. They have been training and awaiting their teammates. Thiago is apparently back in full training and will be in the squad.
I expect Tsimikas might give Robbo a break for this one. Based on what Klopp did for Porto, I expect the rest of the back line to remain the same. Up front, I’ll guess that Jota comes in for Firmino (or perhaps Mane). In midfield, Fabinho will start, and I think Henderson will also. I believe Jones is still unavailable, and Thiago will have only had one or two days back in training. So, it’s between AOC, Milner, and Keïta for the last available spot tomorrow. All three played well on Tuesday. Given that AOC came off the bench on Saturday, I’d guess that he will start this one. Neither the aging Milner nor the decrepit Keïta should be playing 90 minutes this quickly on the back of their exertions on Saturday.
Thus, I predict:
Up the Relentless Reds! I think this will be tight, and Atletico will, as always, make it difficult to score. We are unlikely to extend our record-breaking streak of seven consecutive away matches in all competitions in which we score at least three goals. But, I think we can still squeak it out.
Atletico 0 – LFC 1
