News
JUE 17.03.2016
It now comes as absolutely no surprise to hear people talking about just how well Atletico have been operating as a defensive unit ever since Diego Simeone took over at the Vicente Calderon. Week after week, the big priority within the Rojiblancos dressing room is to keep a clean sheet. If we need any convincing about any of this, one look back at Simeone's first game in charge, which ended in a 0-0 stalemate against Malaga, says it all. The rest, as they say, is history, and the ride has certainly been quite a successful one.
We're running out of superlatives to do justice to the feats being achieved by the Atletico backline. The glowing adjectives which have been used to date have lost all validity given that this is the first time that anything quite like this has been seen in the Liga BBVA. No other team has ever conceded 12 goals or less after Matchday 29.
Up until now, the record for the meanest defence was jointly held by the Atletico Madrid class of 1990/91 and RC Deportivo's 1993/94 side, for whom Abel Resino and Paco Liaño kept goal respectively. Both goalkeepers had been beaten on 14 occasions by this stage of the season, conceding an average of 0.48 goals per game. A quite astonishing record, but one which Atleti, who have conceded just 0.41 goals per game, have smashed.
Jan Oblak has been beaten once every 217 minutes this Liga BBVA season
If we take a look across the European leagues, even the tightest of backlines fail to match Atletico's record:
All that remains now is for Simeone's charges to maintain their defensive stinginess and claim the division's all-time meanest defence record come the end of the season. This status is currently held by Liaño and the Deportivo side referred to above, who were breached on just 18 occasions during the course of the whole season. To claim this record, Oblak must ensure that he's not beaten on any more than six occasions in the remaining nine games. We'll be keeping tabs on this one…
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