La Liga : Sevilla 3-1 Atletico Madrid

Gregorio Manzano marked his first home game on Sevilla's bench with a convincing 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid, following the mid-week away win in Dortmund against in-form Borussia. The board opted for a manager who basically favors 4-4-2, a formation intimately related to the team's success in recent years, under Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo "Monchi" sport direction. Moreover, the motivation techniques Mazano has been praised for, immediately brought the squad together and that has always been a crucial factor for a newly appointed manager.

The starting line-ups

The successor of Antonio Alvarez (and an Atletico manager in the past as well), lined up with a system that initially looked like a 4-4-2, playing Negredo and Kanoute upfront. However, with the Malian stiker often withdrawn in midfield positions, it seemed more like a 4-4-1-1 (or even 4-5-1) over the course of the game. 

With Aguero and Godin both out injured and Reyes banned for one match, Quique Flores started with a 4-5-1, using Perea as a central defender (it was probably his last time playing there...) and a midfield trio of Assuncao-Thiago-Mario Suarez, whilst Fran Merida replaced Reyes on the flank.

First Half (2-0)

Not a fascinating half at all, despite the scoreline and some good chances, as it took some really poor defending from Atletico to concede two goals in six minutes.

Renato was playing deeper for Sevilla, with Romaric occupying the space a bit higher up the pitch,  closer to  Atletico's midfielders. It seems that the Brazilian has restricted his forward runs and prefers a more conservative role in front of the defence, often receiving the first pass and providing cover, whilst the more powerful Romaric presses more intensely and -surprisingly- has more freedom to create. 

Los Nervionenses were in control, largely helped by Kanoute's often dropping into midfield, thus invalidating Atletico's numerical advantage in that area. The Malian striker picked up the deepest midfielder, usually Assuncao,  when not in possession so that Sevilla's two holding players could get goalside of Thiago and Suarez. This also meant that the wingers maintained their wide positions, restricting the space on the flanks that could be exploited. Kanoute's contribution in the team's build-up play was also crucial: his body structure, along with his stride and the deft touch he has on the ball, allow him to be quite effective in retaining possession on the midfield. It's really impressing -and a bit bizarre on the same time..- to watch such a classy forward acting so selflessly. However, the African's role when dropping deep was more about passing and less about creating.

Kanoute's involment in the match - Courtesy of  ESPN Soccernet

The hosts looked more dangerous when the ball was played on the right flank, with Kanoute supporting the Konko-Perotti partnership and that's where their first goal came from:  Konko overlapped and was picked up by Antonio Lopez, so Perotti had a clear advantage against Merida. The Argentinian - who had a very good game overall- played one-two with Kanoute and then cut inside, exploiting the space in front of the opposition defence, since Assuncao was getting goalside of the Malian striker and the other two holding players found themselves too high up the pitch to cover that space, thus Sevilla creating a kind of 4vs4 situation in a limited space. Atletico's defending was woeful, as they failed to close down Perotti, allowing him to deliver a defence-splitting pass in a significantly short space before Negredo curling the ball into the right corner, leaving both Perea and Dominguez staggering.

Image 1: Perotti plays one-two with Kanoute (red dot) and then cuts inside. Konko (yellow) keeps A.Lopez occupied and  leaves A.Dominguez (left sided center back - green dot) reluctant to close down Perotti, something that the holding players (purple dots-Assuncao marking Kanoute) failed to do as well. Negredo (orange) moves into the heart of the defence and receives  the through pass.

The Andalucians scored their second one 6 minutes later when Perotti's shot deflected off Perea and found the net. The Colchoneros defence played with fire, unable to remove the ball from their area  and allowing Kanoute and Capel to create two clear-cut chances, before the goal was finally scored.

Meanwhile, Atletico obviously struggled to create. Quique Flores applied a midfield trio in his starting line-up for the first time this season but the visitors showed great lack of chemistry, especially in the center of the pitch. There was minimal movement and they played into the hands of the opposition holding players. Suarez was invisible, whist Thiago and Assuncao where mostly restricted to short, horizontal passes. Sevilla pressed intensely, keeping their lines close together, with Perotti and Capel doing a great work in the defence. This allowed their full backs to mark Simao and Merida tightly, resulting in both seeing little of the ball in the first half. Diego Forlan seemed lost upfront but was also barely involved in the build up play. Yet, they a had a great chance to open the scoring on the 23rd minute, when  Thiago found Merida with a wonderful  backpass in the 6-yard box, after a Konko's misjudgement on the ball, but  the former Arsenal youngster's shot was well saved by Palop.     

Second Half (3-1)

Quique Flores, after realizing that his team was quite uncomfortable with the first half formation, replaced M.Suarez with Diego Costa and went for his usual 4-4-2, taking off Antonio Lopez for Filipe as well. The Brazilian striker -despite getting close to being dismissed only 50 seconds after his entrance- provided pace and energy to the visitor's attack, however, their hopes for getting anything out of this match came to an end shortly after the begin of the second half, when Kanoute's strike increased the score to 3-0. Once again, Atletico were let down by their defence, who couldn't deal with a relatively easy low cross from Capel, before Negredo setting up for the unmarked Kanoute in their area.

Sevilla sat back, with the outstanding Kanoute dropping deeper and deeper, still looking more dangerous, whilst their opponents looked frustrated. Apart from a goal and a few good moments of Diego Costa -Diego Forlan remained anonymous in the second half-  they did not manage to put the hosts' domination under any doubt.



Sevilla won comfortably, demonstrating that a 4-4-2 can still be competitive, should the team provide efficient pressure on the ball, the wide players are eager to defend and of course at least one striker drop deeper,  often acting as a midfielder. Nevertheless,  sweeping conclusions should not be drawn, down to Altetico's performance. The absences of Godin, Reyes and Aguero really cost the team, in both terms of defending stability and creativity upfront, but Quique Flores's experiment with using three central midfielders failed.