"El Cholo" Simeone has become in his own right one of the great coaches in its history and he has done so fairly and deservedly. He will surely end his red and white journey as one of the most successful. I think there is no doubt about it.
But at the same time that this is recognized and valued, as in football no one has a bull and even less so in the elite, doubts and questions begin to arise especially about whether the team and the institution will be able to maintain the level required up there and about whether the manners of their coach and players and, especially, the type of football they play will respond to the expectations raised and the demands of their fans.
As a club, the colchoneros, after having suffered the gale of the Gil and Gil in this stage of triumphs, have collected the antipathies that Real Madrid have raised with their greatness, money and arrogance and Barça with the excesses of "tiki-taka" and the "philosophy" of Guariolazen and have converted them into sympathies and support in their favor, supported by a victimhood created by marketing and advertising and in the titles achieved in this fruitful stage, especially.
The style and type of football that Simeone has successfully transmitted to his team and that his players follow with enthusiasm and warrior ardor has pillars that are indisputable, such as a competitive attitude to the maximum whoever the rival is, especially if they are great and if it is Real Madrid much better, an excellent defensive approach with two center backs who rarely fail, maximum use of set pieces and excellent forwards for finishing and scoring. Always prepared for battle and brawl, their players do not reach the point of “step on it, step on it”, but if necessary they are there. I think that with this background it will be difficult for them to compete with the best in Europe and even more so to continue winning titles. The fan, so identified with his coach, at the moment is enthusiastic about the idea of continuing to upset the meringues but we'll see, this is very long and the competition is big and demanding of him is not going to stay, for sure.
Simeone and the club must be careful with their ways in managing the team and in their attitude as a coach in games. His “performance” in the Cup final was deplorable in every way. I don't think anyone thinks, as Simeone said, that “it had been the result of the anxiety of the first few days”, I think rather that that is his style, his DNA, he was as a player (that tackle on Julen Guerrero!) and it is as a coach. That is what he transmits and with which he psyches his players to the maximum, tuning in like no one else with the mattress stands, which for the moment is enjoying the joys of victory. But, in an era and in a social moment in which forms are taken care of to the point of stupidity and banality, also in football and at the dictate of the most televisual image possible, you have to be careful and be “correct” and Simeone was not.
What's more, it was a treatise on sporting and footballing incorrectness and although until now that style has been very profitable, it could begin to turn against him and his team. It is no coincidence that in the last two titles played he has been expelled and left a bad taste in his mouth at the end of the momentous matches……..what a coincidence!!!…. the two against their eternal rival.
As a summary, I leave two questions for the kind reader who reads these lines:
Would you pay a ticket to see At Madrid play if you are not a colchonero fan?
Do you think that the football played by those from Manzanares is measured with the same yardstick as other greats? And if so, why?
We leave those answers for another day.
Author: Eduardo Silva
