Atletico Madrid played in the right areas of the pitch on Wednesday night against Granada without the necessary incisiveness. Although Los Colchoneros hit the post late on, most were agreement that Granada deserved their point.
For the home side, it was a familiar tale against teams employing a low block. Asked what the team lacked, manager Diego Simeone had this to say.
“Generating more chances. Above all, being more forceful in dangerous situations. Granada defended very well, they planned the game well and we tried everything to find a way, but we couldn’t.”
Simeone seemed to be under the impression that fatigue played a big part in their inability to break through the Granada defence, as he told Diario AS.
“We are coming off a very big effort, Mallorca, City three days later, just after against Espanyol playing with a man less… then three days again to play.”
“It’s not an excuse, but it’s a reality. We lacked brilliance, fluidity and the tiredness is generated when a team defends well like Granada did. There are five games left, it will be very hard and whichever team has more energy will take the prize of playing in the Champions League.”
It’s also another match went wrong against the sides struggling most, having dropped points to all of the bottom three. The Argentine manager felt that it was a long-term issue rather than something that had went wrong this season.
“It’s difficult to explain. We look to approach every game in the best way, with the same enthusiasm and mentality. But there are a lot situations occurring, not from now, from before as well in Almeria in the first league, Levante… we take it on board and we have to look for a solution but at the moment we aren’t finding it.”
