The Argentine believes his team have had another positive season in La Liga and Europe - particularly after a summer of upheaval.Diego Simeone has shrugged off criticism of Atletico Madrid’s recent displays and claimed he is satisfied with their performance in La Liga this season.Despite winning the Spanish top flight last season, Atleti are currently third, nine points adrift of leaders Barcelona with five games to go.
They were also knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage by city rivals Real Madrid with Javier Hernandez grabbing the decisive strike in a 1-0 aggregate win. Simeone’s approach over the two legs was criticised for being too defensive, but the Argentine believes there were mitigating circumstances.
He said at Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the trip to Villarreal: “Criticism doesn’t bother me, in fact I see it as something totally normal. After three successful years it’s understood that you want to be the best. When you get pressure to improve it’s because it’s felt that there is room to improve.
“We were three minutes away from not losing against Madrid. There are many things to focus on. We conceded with one player less and I understand the criticism. Football is great but we all feel we are right and everything is up for debate, we are all coaches. But it’s the ones who are on the pitch who have to make decisions. This is all a reaction from one negative result.”Atletico lost Diego Costa, Filipe Luis, Thibaut Courtois and David Villa from their title-winning side of last season and Simeone believes their departures and the number of players brought in to replace them has stalled their progress.
He added: “The main difference from last season is that we have 10 new players that have had to adapt but they have helped us be competitive. We won the Supercopa de Espana. In the Champions League we made it through to the last eight and were eliminated in the Copa del Rey by Barca.
“We’ve competed well. If I was told beforehand that we would go into the last five games with a mathematical possibility of winning the title for the second year in a row, then I’d have taken it. If we were to secure all remaining 15 points, then we’re only three behind last season’s total. It’s our intention to get as close as possible to last year’s total.
“We’ve taken things bit by bit. We took our time in being able to beat Madrid, after 14 years of being incapable of doing so. We’ve started to forge a competitive team. I always dream of improving, never settling for less than we have. I feel that it was a good decision coming to the club at a time when things weren’t good and I’m indebted to the players, as they are the ones who have helped us achieve what we have."
The Villarreal game is Simeone’s 200th in charge of Atletico and he highlights the 1-1 draw at Barcelona on the final day of last season – a result which secured the title – as the highlight.
He said: “To play in front of 90,000 fans as the visiting team, lose Diego Costa and Arda Turan through injury and have the team win the league title was special.”
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