Bayern Munich vs. Atletico Madrid is really a clash of managers and styles
There was a time when Pep Guardiola was not the world's preeminent manager. He was just a formerly great player being handed the reins to the club where he was expected to work the same magic in the dugout that he did on the pitch. And he was a smashing success.
Diego Simeone's followed the same path. He was a legend at Atletico Madrid, not Barcelona like Guardiola, but he took over as the club's manager with great expectations. The weight of his accomplishments as a player was on his shoulders and yet it didn't slow him at all. He proved to be brilliant, taking Atletico to never-before-seen heights, like Guardiola did at Barcelona.
Now the two managers, who are so similar in paths and successes, meet in the UEFA Champions League semifinals, with Guardiola now at Bayern Munich and set to take on Simeone's Atletico Madrid. But their similarities in no way extend to how their teams play.
Whereas Guardiola in an ideologue pushing for the closest thing modern soccer has to "Total Football," Simeone is a ruthless pragmatist. Guardiola is confident and believes in his system above all, trusting his players to do as he's taught them. And when he breaks his calm character, it is as a teacher. Always teaching. Simeone will use encouragement or fear, all with maximum intensity. And if that extends to being the cheerleader for his adoring Estadio Calderon crowd to push the players, so be it.
In tactics, and in demeanor, they have little in common.
The possession-based system that Guardiola developed at Barcelona, is now much more expansive. Philipp Lahm, one of the all-time great fullbacks, is often a midfielder. David Alaba, also a brilliant fullback, is either a centerback or a midfielder. Strikers, at least in the traditional sense, are often eschewed for players capable of playing a variety of roles.
To even try to put a formation on Bayern is a fool's errand, because no formation can adequately capture the constant movement of the team. They're a consistently evolving amoeba, made possible by their players' immense skill and versatility. But Guardiola still preaches possession as the best defense, just like he did at Barcelona, reasoning that if his team always has the ball, they can't concede.
Possession is barely a concern to Simeone. And formations matter. They matter a lot.
Atletico Madrid's first priority is to defend their goal and they do it as well as anyone in the world. They can drop six, seven, eight of even nine players behind the ball. They can defend in a variety of formations and the triggers they use to initiate pressure change from match to match. But more than anything, they aim to take away the center of the pitch.
From there, they can counterattack. And they counter as quickly and ruthlessly as any team around. Whether it's Koke or Saul's creativity springing the attack, Antoine Griezmann's brilliance in the final third or Fernando Torres -- hey, Torres jokes might still be funny, but they're entirely jokes and not a sad reflection of reality now -- you would be hard pressed to find a team more efficient in transition.
That is where Atletio shine -- in transition. Be it when they give the ball away and have to cut off teams' space, forcing them to slow before Atleti dictate where on the pitch the ball will be played, or the way they hit teams as soon as they take it away, that is where Simeone's men kill teams. It's not in possession, on either side, but when possession changes.
Now these two styles will clash over two legs with a spot in the Champions League final on the line.
Guardiola's Bayern team will keep the ball and Atletico Madrid will happily give it to them. The Bavarians will try to beat the Spaniards with the ball and Simeone will dare them to.
If Guardiola really can build a nearly position-less team, impossible to track and nail down, Atletico's triggers and organization will be ruined. They won't be able to play with their vaunted discipline because they won't know where and with whom to be disciplined against. But if Simeone can keep them in check, and Atletico can defend with the same fury that they usually exhibit, then they can win the transition game. They usually win when possession turns over and there's space to play in, and Bayern's biggest weakness is their ability to defend in transition.
So which will reign supreme: Possession or counterattacking? Calm or controlled chaos? Guardiola or Simeone?
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