MADRID • After their second La Liga loss of the season on Saturday, a result that left Atletico Madrid 10 points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid (39), Diego Simeone told his players he did not want them to feel sorry for themselves.
"There are two responses. Either you get depressed or you rebel," the manager said following their 2-1 home defeat by Mallorca, the latest in a string of underwhelming results for the struggling Spanish champions.
Atletico's season, however, will get a lot worse should they lose their last Champions League group game in Portugal today.
Only a victory will do at Porto, otherwise, Atletico will go out in the group stage for only the second time under Simeone and the first since the 2017-18 season.
The Portuguese side hold a one-point edge over Simeone's men as well as AC Milan in Group B, with Liverpool already through as winners after five wins in as many games.
The Argentinian has heard it before, the questions about his methods and relevance, and whether he is still a force for good at the Wanda Metropolitano, whose fans only six months ago were celebrating winning their first La Liga title in seven years in a car park because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Simeone is rightly revered for transforming a team considered to be also-rans in La Liga into an established member of Europe's aristocracy.
Later this month, he celebrates a decade with Atletico - a club that had not finished in the top three for 16 years when he took over.
In nine complete seasons under Simeone, they have never been out of La Liga's top three. They have twice broken the Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly to win the league and come within a whisker of two Champions League triumphs, denied only by a stoppage-time winner and then a penalty shoot-out.
Atletico have always been the underdogs in Spain, so when Simeone called for "rebellion" against Porto, it was a familiar reflex for a coach who in a crisis looks to the psychological elements, demanding more work, concentration, focus, fight and togetherness.
It is why the failures this season have been particularly jarring for a team so renowned for their discipline and defence.
However, Atletico's decline in the Champions League is clear. Since reaching the final in 2016, their yearly stage of exits read semi-finals, group stage, last 16, quarter-finals, last 16.
Even domestically, their current slump is not a one-off. They were treading water for most of the second half of last season, winning only six games in 16 between February and April. It may be indicative of a deeper decline, which will be harder to reverse, although Simeone is hopeful his players can find something within themselves to rise to the occasion today.
He said: "I have no doubt that surely this type of blow generates a reaction and we hope to find it on Tuesday. We are concerned and we seek to work on it. We hope to find better results in the next matches.
"It is a difficult moment, but I trust the squad. The best thing is to have close matches to see if we can reverse the situation."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
