Spanish Debate: Aguirre's Time Up?

As always, in the sizzling Spanish summer, expectations and hopes for Atlético Madrid were high this season, especially bearing in the mind the year that they has just enjoyed.

A fourth place finish in the league was just reward for some enterprising and attractive football and with the defensive line bolstered in the off-season pundits were purring about what they could do this time around.

In typical Atlético fashion it started so well, with thrashings handed out to Málaga, Recreativo and Schalke but by mid-November it all seems to have gone, for want of a better phrase, tits-up.

The mattress-makers were defeated by three of their so called 'rivals' for the title and have just recently failed to beat lowly Osasuna, prompting the question; is it time for Javier Aguirre for go?

Tactical Disaster

It is hard to blame the form of a side on the coach and those who do it often conveniently forget to heap the praise on when the situation is reversed. The coach's job is simply to pick the side, decide the tactics, give the team-talks, make the substitutions and then let the players whom he, or he the club, have signed do the rest.

The only time the coach should come under fire is when he gets any of the above blatantly wrong, and unfortunately for Aguirre he has put himself in the spotlight this season.

In past seasons, and indeed even this one for most of the time, Atlético have been renowned for their goal-scoring prowess, their total disregard/inability when it comes to defending and their extravagant football. That is what the squad is built on, ultimately, and whilst they might have signed a few good defenders and a defensive midfielder in the summer, it is still what this squad is about. Aguirre has tried to change this, he has tried to effectively alter the DNA of the side built to attack, and make it solid.

Take Osasuna the weekend just gone for example. A side win-less for the whole season, who have not been leaking goals and who have struggled immensely to score them too, a side who should not have presented Atlético Madrid with any problem; until the tactics were revealed.

Instead of playing with a 4-4-2, as was predicted and as would be expected with one of the most prolific striker partnerships in Europe, Aguirre decided to change it up, in a game which the captain himself had declared they need to win. Sergio Agüero started upfront on his own, whilst Diego Forlán was demoted to the bench, the result; a first-half where the visitors didn't test Roberto once and which the Argentine wonder-kid upfront barely got a touch of the ball.

In the second-half either Aguirre regained his wisdom, or someone had a stern word with him, because up came Forlán, off went Paulo Assuncao, and suddenly Atlético looked like they might score. In the end they didn't but the contrasting displays only served to show how much Aguirre got it wrong on the day.

It is not the first occasion it has happened, either. Against Real Madrid, in unarguably the biggest match of the season for Atleti, he opted to play the highly unimpressive Éver Banega as an attacking midfielder with the creative talents of Maniche and Raúl García stuck in the centre of the pitch.

Attack Or Defend?

It is not just the tactics he has got wrong either, it has been his team choice. His insistence in playing Banega and Assuncao ahead of Raúl García is a crime in itself and starting Mariano Pernia ahead of Antonio López at left-back is still staggering even though it happens each week.

Whilst it might be harsh to acuse Pernia of been guilty of conceding two penalties in two games it is no secret that he is not the greatest defender and is instead chosen for his general attacking ability. That may well be considered brilliant at Barcelona, where they can outscore opponents each game and have world-class defenders, but at Atlético it is the the last thing they need.

With Luis Perea, Tomas Ujfalusi, Johnny Heitina and López in the backline there might not be that many goals coming, but at the same time Leo Franco or Gregory Coupet might not have to pick the ball out of the net quite so much. Subsequently, the coach could stop deploying a defensive midfielder, like Assuncao, against teams such as Osasuna, who have scored just three goals all season! Teams who win titles might rarely do so with an outstanding attack alone but what Aguirre needs to do is to pick the games for his tactical experiments better, if he wants to survive.

Osasuna away was a perfect example of not an experimental game, it was a get a goal, don't concede and come away with the three points kind of game. Aguirre though turned it into a battle and unfortunately for him and Atlético fans, they lost the battle despite drawing the game. The war is not lost yet though and one feels that what has cost Aguirre and Atlético so far has been their participation in the Champions League.

Europe -A Whole New World

To say the Mexican has failed to distinguish between La Liga and Europe would probably be harsh and obviously unfair but it would not be totally off track to say he has let the two overlap. Against Liverpool, the game that proceeded Osasuna, Atlético were hailed for their solid play and great tactical display that earned them a draw but it seems Aguirre just forget who were they playing next match. In Europe, as is well known and published, tactics are different and so are the game-plans, and maybe the coach is being a little naive in his first season of management in the competition.

The real test for him now doesn't come against Marseille next week in the Champions League, nor in the return fixtures against the the 'top four', but instead it is against Deportivo, Numancia, Racing Santander et al. These are the games where Aguirre and Atlético have failed for too long and now these are the games, not the ones against Real Madrid and Barça, that will shape their season. Lose, or even fail to beat, these mid and lower table sides then there is no way Aguirre can keep his job for much longer. It is often said that a coach takes a club as far as it can go but in this case maybe the club has taken the coach as far as he can go...


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