Atletico Madrid before San Sebastian: the noise around Giuliano and the real crack in the defence

The 86th minute at Anfield. The scoreline was settled, Atletico Madrid's midfield had dropped deep in front of their own box, and the ball sat comfortably in Liverpool's feet. Only one player in red and white was still sprinting, arcing to the right flank, pinning the full-back to the touchline and sliding across wet grass to cut the ball out. Giuliano Simeone, 22. The referee gave Liverpool the throw. Anfield applauded the home side. I sat in the press area, bent over an open notebook and wrote a short line: he was still running when the team had stopped.

Luzhniki taught me that every move begins with a bad touch. It took more years, and many evenings rewatching footage in hotel rooms, to understand the second half of that lesson — what a team does after the bad touch is what defines it. Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid are standing exactly at that moment.

Eight goals, two defeats and an away trip that cannot be shrugged off

In five competitive matches this season, Atletico Madrid have conceded eight goals. Two straight defeats: 0-3 against Athletic Club and a loss to Liverpool in the Champions League. Those are verifiable facts, and together they paint a picture that contradicts the defensive identity Simeone built over more than a decade in Madrid.

Personnel problems have stacked on top of results. Pablo Barrios — the young midfielder groomed as the shield in front of the back line — has a muscle injury. Alexander Sorloth, the tall forward who serves as the anchor for long balls, remains absent. Losing both removes two ways for Simeone to change a match through people rather than instructions.

The trip to the Reale Arena in San Sebastian to face Real Sociedad therefore carries unusual weight for a September fixture. The opponent is a direct rival for European places. Another defeat would turn a stuttering start into a full-blown crisis across every Madrid newsroom.

Against that backdrop, Simeone's pre-match press conference was dominated by one question: why Giuliano keeps starting. He did not duck it, and he did not add fuel. He talked about work. He said his son works tirelessly, and that the work speaks for itself. Do not argue about an individual when the real problem sits in the structure — that is the choice of a man who has spent two decades in the job.

The gap between the lines

Start with the hardest part, the part English media and social platforms barely touch: the distance between Atletico's lines when they do not have the ball.

Eight goals conceded in five games is not the product of one player making mistakes; it is the consequence of a midfield that can no longer hold its distance from the defence. With Barrios available, he fills the space in front of the two centre-backs, which allows the full-backs to push up and the block to squeeze in the middle third. Without him, that space opens. Centre-backs step out, every step forward leaves ground behind, and each line-breaking pass becomes a genuine chance.

Alongside that sits the Sorloth problem. For several seasons Atletico escaped pressure with a simple device: play long to a forward strong and tall enough to hold the ball until the midfield pushed up. Sorloth was that anchor. Without him, long balls have no receiver, the team is forced back, and every turnover becomes another full-team sprint towards its own goal.

Put those two together and Atletico fall into a familiar loop: losing the ball early, defending while running backwards, and burning more energy than any opponent on the pitch. Those who remain must carry the work of those who are absent. September with two matches a week, a squad thinned by injury and a system demanding high running volume is the classic recipe for muscle injuries. Barrios is the first example, and probably not the last.

Why Giuliano keeps starting

Giuliano's role at Atletico is defined not by attacking output but by first-press ability, recovery speed when the team loses the ball, and a willingness to run into spaces nobody else wants to enter. He has featured in every match this season and has made three La Liga starts. For a side conceding goals because it cannot keep its shape, a player who covers eleven or twelve kilometres a game is a tactical solution, not a favour.

The second half of the story deserves a straight look. Pressing only has value when there is a structure behind it. A lone presser while the midfield behind him fails to close up is not creating pressure; he is burning himself out. In the defeat to Athletic Club I counted at least a dozen moments when Giuliano pressed horizontally across the pitch while both central midfielders were still behind the halfway line. That work appears in no statistical table, and it is the clearest trace of a team losing its structure.

Three La Liga starts for a 22-year-old in a club in crisis is a double signal. It says the manager trusts his intensity. It also says the squad is short of other options.

The Reale Arena and the horizontal test

Tactically, Real Sociedad at the Reale Arena are a difficult opponent at precisely the wrong time. A tight ground, stands close to the touchline, a home side that likes to circulate the ball in the opposition half. Against a back line that has lost its rhythm and a midfield missing its ball-winner, every rotation will stretch Atletico's block horizontally. Horizontal space is where Atletico have been hurt most this season.

In La Liga, the cost of a slow start is not measured in September points but in psychological distance from the leaders. Atletico do not need to win the title in October. They need November not to become a scrap for Champions League qualification. That is the difference between a normal season and one defined by fear.

The mental pressure after a 0-3 also matters. A team that has just been dismantled tends to play the next game with a safety reflex: more square passes, less stepping up, less risk. For a defence already out of sync, that reflex produces the most dangerous kind of error — one born of hesitation rather than aggression.

Supporters read the game differently

I still keep in touch with a group of Atletico supporters in Madrid, people I met while running an online forum for Brentford fans during the empty-stadium months. After the Athletic defeat, one of them sent me a line I copied into my notebook word for word: We did not lose because of him. We lost because nobody was covering for anybody.

People in the stands often read a match more accurately than any television breakdown, because they watch with the naked eye and with memory. They see who drops back, who stands still, who turns away when the ball changes direction. I have always treated those anonymous voices as a primary source, not as decoration for a piece.

The contrarian angle

The easiest reading of Atletico right now is a father-and-son story. It has all the ingredients for an online argument: power, family, and a famously combustible manager. But the criticism aimed at Giuliano teaches us very little about why Atletico have conceded eight goals in five matches.

The misunderstanding sits here: people are judging a selection decision with the logic of a healthy team, while Atletico this week are a sick team. With a defence that holds its shape, a manager can pick the best attacker. Without that defence, he must pick the man who runs the most. That is the difference between football on a tactics board and football in an emergency room.

The irony is that precisely because Giuliano runs the most, he is watched the most. A cautious player with few touches and few mistakes never ends up on the operating table. The one who presses, who steps into gaps, who takes the punishment while the team sinks — that is the one present in every frame.

And in football, when a collective wobbles, the need to blame an individual always outweighs the need to understand the problem. The easiest individual to find at Atletico carries the manager's surname.

What to watch next

I will not watch the scoreline in San Sebastian first. I will watch the opening twenty minutes: whether Atletico hold the distance between midfield and defence, or leave the space in front of the box open again as they have for weeks. I will watch Barrios, because his return matters more than any January signing. And I will watch how Giuliano responds to the noise — he does not need forgiveness; he needs a structure solid enough for his work to mean something.

The loudest applause does not come from the stands, but from the empty seats. In San Sebastian, the empty seats are named Barrios and Sorloth. Atletico need to fill them with organisation before they fill them with belief.

The rhythm of a match can only be heard when you put your ear to the grass. On Sunday, that grass is at the Reale Arena.