Match Analyses: Vicente Calderón, Madrid, 23.11.2016. 20:45

Weather: Clear

Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov

Attendance: 37891

Atletico Madrid

Coach: Diego Simeone

Playing System: 4-4-2 

PSV

Coach: Phillip Cocu

Playing System: 4-4-2

Atletico Madrid Defence

Atletico Madrid tried to apply the same defending principles as they usually do. They knew that they dominate the game so they tried to press back as soon as they lost the ball. However, PSV players are good at bringing the ball out of their defensive third and they have quite fast strikers so counter-attack was also a possibility for them.
After the away team could play the ball through their own half, Atletico regrouped into a 4-4-2 defensive formation. PSV almost did the same defensively, but there is a huge difference between the two. Atletico Madrid chose the 4-4-2 defending even when the away team’s full backs ran forward so they risked the 2v1s on the flank as we can see on the picture in the black circle. There is overload in the middle and there aren’t any dangerous passing lanes for PSV but the home team took a risk and didn’t go back with the full backs while the away team did.
After a couple of minutes it turned out that Atletico will need this kind of risk because they weren’t able to create dangerous situations against a compact PSV defence. The home team needed the ball and had to counter-attack. This is how they got the lead in the second half. Taking risk is not always typical of Simeone’s team. 

PSV Defence

As it was expected, PSV knew that they have a worse quality team as individuals but they can achieve anything through great team work. As soon as they lost the ball they tried to press immediately to force Atletico Madrid players into making a mistake or making a long ball. This is how they had some problems as only 3 players stepped back, the other 7 pressed high after a change of possession and Atletico’s strikers (Griezmann and Gameiro) could win headers against the defenders and also Carrasco stepped high waiting for the long ball to come.
When Atletico could bring the ball out, PSV stepped back and regrouped as a 5-4-1. There were 5 defenders in 25 metres horizontally against the 3 attackers. They had a numerical superiority in the middle and this was the most important. We discussed the home team’s defence and here we need to talk about the risk-taking: PSV didn’t take any risks, they had a 5-man back-line and were constantly having numerical superiorities in their own defensive third. They didn’t wait for the long balls and move while the ball is going in the air, they secured themselves not giving Atletico a chance by being more brave.

Atletico Madrid Attack

Simeone’s team started in a 4-4-2 formation that is typical for Atletico Madrid under the Argentine trainer. This formation is easy to transform and easy to teach mechanisms for the players using this. Atletico Madrid started with three organiser midfielder: Koke, Tiago and Gabi. Although Koke plays great games in the middle of the field, he is really useful on the wings, too. We could see that Vrsaljko started on the right as a full-back running up and down. This meant Koke could take steps towards the midfield to play in his real role. He was like a false-winger on this game. Gabi and the newly-promoted were often found on the flank, more than Koke or Carrasco who often changed positions. Carrasco played in such a free role after the first quarter of the game.Here we can see Tiago and Gabi stepping back to organise, Koke stepping towards the middle to open up space for the left-back (Filipe Luis). We can also see the two strikers standing on the shoulders of the three central defender. Both of them, Griezmann and Gameiro are able to play the short passing game in a reduced area so one of them were constantly stepping back.
It was quite hard to break up the away team’s defence so Atletico Madrid needed the crosses, too because they are not used to playing in the centre with short passes against a team that kills attacking football. 

PSV Attack

PSV Attack 1

PSV had an important and quite challenging job when they had to play out from their own defensive third and had to try to keep possession. In the beginning of the game, Atletico let them do this a little bit.
As soon as they could, one player stepped in and then played the ball back. It was important because they had some time to breathe and pushed the away team backwards. It was tactically important that Atletico let them possess the ball and dropped back because they were waiting for the counter-attacks. Cocu knew this so his team were careful.

PSV Attack 2

The away team didn’t risk anything. The sole striker moved towards the flanks to help the team possession and there were only weak deep runs behind the defence (as it can be seen on the left in the picture). They mostly happened to open up space for the teammate coming from their own half. 
They also waited for the counter-attacks and the individual mistakes made by the opponent. This is how they had 4 shots and 2 on target.

Summary

This clash wasn’t about the tactical maturity of the two teams. Both of them waited for the counter attacks and the individual mistakes. Atletico was the team that could solve the 2v2s in the counter attacks, this is how they decided the game. They were compact defensively but they still committed some errors. This is a warning sign for Simeone to strengthen his build-up game and improve tactics against teams defending this deep as PSV did.
Both teams had lots of touches on the ball (841-636) but PSV were the team who tried to slow the game down with these touches. Atletico tried to organise, tried to use their qualitative superiority but didn’t managed to when the opponent regrouped and defended their goal.