As far as send-offs go, Atletico Madrid's 3-0 loss to Real Madrid was about as ugly a way as possible for the Estadio Vicente Calderon to wave goodbye to nearly half a century of league derbies. Los Rojiblancos were as poor as they have ever been in a derby match under Diego Simeone since the 4-1 drubbing suffered in the Argentine's first months, but they looked similarly shaky in the recent LaLiga losses to Real Sociedad and Sevilla. These recent performances beg the question: what is wrong with the 2016/17 Atletico? It would be glib to suggest that there is one simple answer, but the main issue may lie with Yannick Carrasco's breakthrough month of October - for which he won Atletico's Mahou Five Star Player award. Until scoring his bursting-onto-the-scene hat-trick against Granada on October 15, the Belgian hadn't played the full 90 minutes in any of Los Colchoneros' 2016/17 matches, with his five-star performance finally earning him the right to complete a game.
With goals against Rostov and Malaga confirming the improvement in his finishing, Carrasco suddenly became undroppable, which raised some problems regarding the balance of the team. Simeone's non-negotiable 4-4-2 has always relied on strict positional discipline, with his 2013/14 title-winning team so consistently in the right places at the right times that you suspected he might have had 11 player-controlling joysticks in his dugout. Even Diego Costa generally managed to stay on message. However, the 2014 arrival of the gossamer talent that is Antoine Griezmann forced a slight shift in approach, as the benefits of the Frenchman's creativity outweighed the defensive cost of permitting him the necessary freedom to demonstrate it. As such, Los Rojiblancos evolved into a team of ten carefully orchestrated chess pieces, plus one rogue king given a license to roam. That proved a successful formula, but this year's emergence of Carrasco has now required Simeone to sign off on another creative license, given that the Belgian's talents are not properly extracted if he is asked to play in the same conservative manner as Koke, his predecessor on the left wing.
The cost of letting Carrasco join Griezmann and the centre-forward - either Kevin Gameiro or Fernando Torres - in attack is a weakness on the left flank, one which even a world-class left-back like Filipe Luis cannot be expected to cover and one which Real Madrid exploited on Saturday. At the same time, the similarly-undroppable Koke has had to be wedged into the XI alongside Gabi in the centre of midfield, taking over from Augusto Fernandez and Tiago, who timeshared the role last season, but who have suffered injuries this year. Now that Tiago is back, however, logic would suggest that the Portuguese defensive midfielder should occupy that spot as Gabi's sidekick, causing Simeone a major headache. Assuming Saul Niguez retains his spot on the right of the midfield four, does Koke or Carrasco get the nod on the left-hand side? Neither can - nor likely will - be left out, but to establish the necessary balance between attack and defence, it could be in Atletico's best interests.
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