Football Season Guide

Diego Simeone famously described Atletico Madrid’s 2019/20 campaign as “a transition year” and he had a point, since the team had gone through a squad overhaul, with half of the starting line-up replaced. They had a so-so season, finishing third in the league, reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, reaching the final of the Spanish Super Cup and having a poor Copa del Rey campaign. Now, though, they’ll look to challenge for titles again. After the busy summer of 2019, the summer of 2020 has been very quiet at Atletico Madrid. Their transfer business has only really been to lose one backup goalkeeper and to sign another. So, this squad should be settled and ready to go. The strength of Atletico Madrid has long been their defence and that’s set to continue. They conceded just 27 goals in 38 games last campaign, which was actually high for this club, and they’ll look to reduce that number even further now that the back four are used to playing together. And behind that back four they have arguably the world’s best goalkeeper in Jan Oblak. Another strength is Simeone himself, although he has just lost his long-time assistant Mono Burgos. The weakness, meanwhile, is in attack. The strikers Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata are both inconsistent and the lack of goals saw Atletico Madrid draw a club record 16 LaLiga games last campaign. That can’t happen if they’re to challenge in LaLiga this year.