Diego Simeone has challenged Atletico Madrid to “reinvent themselves” next season, while maintaining the “structure” that has brought them recent success.
Los Colchoneros are being tipped to adopt a more fluid style of play next season after their physical approach came under scrutiny for being excessive last season, but the Coach is keen to strike a balance as opposed to solely focusing on one philosophy.
“We’re happy to come here and compete. Our opponents have already begun their season, so there will be a great atmosphere,” he said at a Press conference ahead of Saturday’s friendly against Sagan Tosu in Japan.
“We’re preparing for a new season and we must reinvent ourselves again as a team, as we did in previous years.
“We’ve been training for the last 20 days and are in the process of growing.
“Young players with a promising future in the game have arrived and we hope they can [realise this promise] and compete internally, which is the best way to compete externally.
“The new [attackers] pose different characteristics, as they’re all quick and forward-thinking, but their approach is the same [to the existing players].
“[Luciano] Vietto, [Yannick] Carrasco and Oliver [Torres] are hard-workers, so we’ll have more variation but remain a strong team.
“The players who’ve left have only left for the value of their release clause, but we’ve always signed replacements.
“Last season, we signed [Mario] Mandzukic and [Radamel] Falcao left a year before.
“The club reinvent themselves but what counts most is that the structure doesn’t change. That’s never changed and it’s what sustains everything.
“The team are competing very well at the moment. The others are following in Juanfran, Gabi, Godin, Raul Garcia, Tiago and Koke’s lead and we’ve invited those who have joined to understand what Atletico Madrid are about.
“[Sagan Tosu] are a brave team with interesting forwards. They’re quick, a trademark of the Japanese.
“My memories [of Japan from the 2002 World Cup] aren’t positive as we won our first match of the group stage but were eventually eliminated. The experience served us well in hindsight.”
