Posted by Joseph Zucker

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. Atletico Madrid starts the season off with guns a blazing, only to come crashing back down to earth. It seems to be the same story every season with the club. After back-to-back 4-0 victories over Racing Santander and Sporting Gijon respectively, Atletico was demolished by Barcelona, drew with Stade Rennes, Sevilla, Granada, and lost 2-0 to Udinese.

Perhaps most surprising is one thing is this recent run of bad form: a lack of goals. In those five matches, Atletico has scored one goal. One measly goal from Juanfran in the 87th minute against Rennes. And that goal was completely undeserved because Rennes had dominated most of the match. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Although Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan left in the summer, the club spent a record €40 million on striker Radamel Falcao. And perhaps, that’s when the club management crippled the club as a whole.

The transfer was a direct result of Aguero’s move to Manchester City. There was clearly a glaring hole that needed to be filled. Enter Falcao. He is arguably, at his best, the world’s best pure finisher. Falcao found the net 33 times in all competitions last year and 30 the year before. When he signed for Atletico, it was almost too good to be true. The supporters latched on to him immediately as he hit the ground running. He netted his first-ever domestic league hat-trick against Racing, then scored two more against Gijon. Everything was right in the Calderón. And then the Barcelona match happened.

It was supposed to be a bit of a measuring stick for the Atletico squad. Manzano had them playing really good football and the club looked like a Champions League spot was not outside the realm of possibility. Since that night in the Nou Camp, the club hasn’t been the same. Falcao was forced to play really high up the pitch and was left horribly exposed. It has been the same story for many of the matches after that. Manzano can’t really be blamed. It’s not as if Falcao is unfamiliar to a 4-3-3, which is the tactic Manzano has used for much of the season. In Spain, Falcao just doesn’t seem to be able to dominate games as much as he did in Portgual. And he also doesn’t have a player the caliber of Hulk playing beside him.

I had brought up the fact that there was a lack of another finisher alongside Falcao. Obviously he’s the target man, but sooner or later, someone else would have to step up and score goals. Adrián has had many opportunities to be that guy, but it has been painfully clear he isn’t. The other new transfers, Diego and Arda Turan, have performed really well, but goalscoring was never something they were expected to bring. So you really have to wonder, how much has the Falcao transfer hurt the club?

It sounds crazy to think that bringing in such a great striker would be a negative, but this is a club that aren’t like their Madrid rivals. Atletico can’t go and just spend €40 million on one player every transfer window. When the transfer was first announced, I was ecstatic. But then I looked at the price and wondered no matter what his goal output would be, the club grossly overpaid for him. Atletico Madrid, while arguably the third- or fourth-biggest club in Spain, must live within their means. They can’t afford to write off a multi-million Euro transfer disaster. The club is hundreds of millions of Euros in debt and don’t look to be balancing that out anytime soon. There isn’t the kind of television revenue that Barcelona or Real Madrid get. Atletico doesn’t even have a shirt sponsor. The club can’t immediately bring in reinforcements when things go bad.

The Falcao transfer looks more and more like a reaction buy based more off hurt feelings. It’s like after you break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend and then you make some stupid impulse buy. Generally, though, you don’t spend $55 million. Just simply by looking at who left and who came in you can see there would be a glaring hole in the finishing category. It wasn’t really a case of addition by subtraction. Atletico lost their two best strikers, Forlan and Aguero, and brought in only one. Adrián was brought in prior to Falcao, but he’s not exactly a killer finisher, scoring eight times in 31 league matches. The club essentially put everything on the Colombian to succeed. It was a purchase with the attitude of winning now. That’s a good thing to see if you’re a supporter, but if things don’t go right, then not only are you struggling in the present, you have sacrificed your future.

Falcaometer (as of October 21, 2011)



This week: 21

On a scale of 1-10, the Falcaometer is off the charts. It seems every season Atletico must have a terrible run of form. I want to make it clear that the club’s recent run of terrible form isn’t really down the Colombian by himself. It’s really a larger problem. Somebody must show up and take a share of the goalscoring load off of him. Until then, Atletico will languish in the middle of the table.