Prolific, hard-working Julian Alvarez can be key to Atleti success
SILENT ASSASSIN: Julian Alvarez of Atletico Madrid celebrates scoring his team's first goal against Real Madrid. Pic: Denis Doyle/Getty Images
Real Madrid may have won the battle, but with the war still hanging in the balance; Atletico Madrid have the perfect Commander-in-Chief to lead the team to glory.
Diego Simeone is a manager who thrives off emotion, Conor Gallagher’s tackle late on in the 1-0 win over Athletic Club at the start of the month a case in point.
A master of a tactician, too, Simeone will hope to kick off a testing few days by securing a spot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League ahead of the Sunday’s top-of-the-table showdown with Barcelona.
That’ll prove easier said than done, however.
The Champions League is Real Madrid’s bread and butter. La Liga isn’t good enough for the demanding Los Blancos fanbase, who crave to be crowned Europe’s elite year in, year out.
But with a raucous Wanda Metropolitano behind Los Colchoneros, Atleti have a chance.
Simeone’s side invested heavily over the summer to improve the likelihood of domestic and continental success, bringing in the likes of Alexander Sorloth, Robin Le Normand and Gallagher to boost their chances of breaking the Barcelona and Real Madrid duopoly in Spain.
The standout addition, though, was the capture of Julian Alvarez.
While Manchester City had little choice but to cash in on the wantaway Argentine – City have a knack for selling any player who is keen to leave, no matter their standing – their loss has very much proven Atletico’s gain.
The 25-year-old has won all there is to win for both club and country, and it’s only recently that City have signed a player who can cover the versatility Alvarez brought to the one-time Champions League winners, acquiring Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Atletico will now be hoping the Argentina international can transfer his knack for silverware from England to Spain as the Madrid giants challenge on a number of fronts.
Alvarez has already enjoyed a fine debut campaign in Spain having struck 10 times and laid on an additional two assists. What’s been crucial has been the Alvarez is again proving a big game player for Atletico, coming in clutch when it matters most.
The former City man scored the only goal off the bench in the aforementioned win over Athletic Club, and has netted key strikes against Real Madrid, Celta Vigo, Mallorca, Osasuna and Real Sociedad. Without Alvarez’s goals, Atletico would be 10 points worse off.
In the Champions League, he netted both goals in the 2-1 League Phase win over Bayer Leverkusen, and of course scored the superb individual effort that left Thibaut Courtois grasping at thin air at the Bernabeu last week.
Atletico have so often been the bridesmaid and never the bride. Their luck may just come in this season, especially with their standout summer signing delivering for Atleti, though that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
What does stand out is that Alvarez is scoring the goals he shouldn’t be. Indeed, he has netted seven Champions League goals having generated just 2.62 xG.
Only Raphinha (5.25) is overperforming his xG to a higher standard than Alvarez (4.38) in Europe’s elite club competition. Granted, it’s unsustainable in the long term, but in knockout football; the ability to conjure moments of magic out of nothing is vital.
In addition, Alvarez picks his moments to strike having scored seven goals from 17 shots. A conversion rate of 41.2% is second only to Santiago Gimenez (54.5%) of the 143 players to have mustered at least 10 shots in the Champions League this season.
He’s scored four of the five big chances he has been presented.
This is a striker who appreciates the importance of taking his chances on the grand stage, though this shouldn’t come as a surprise for a forward who has scored more goals after his first 26 Champions League appearances (15) than compatriot Lionel Messi (13).
With the out-of-possession aggressiveness that Simeone craves – Alvarez is averaging a modest 1.1 tackles per 90 in the Champions League this season – this is another side to the Atleti star’s game that has handed the La Liga giants another route to goal.
It’s no surprise that Atletico have scored more counter attacking goals (5) than any other team in the Champions League. For context, they didn’t score one in the competition last season.
That said, it’ll take a monumental effort for Atletico to overcome the one-goal deficit if they are to book a quarter-final spot at Real Madrid’s expense. Carlo Ancelotti’s side aren’t in the best form on the road, but in turn; have lost just five away matches this season.
Only one of those five defeats – a 2-0 loss at Liverpool – has been by a single goal, meaning all but one away result so far in 2024/25 would be enough for Atletico to at least take the tie to extra time.
Yet this is the reason Alvarez was signed. He’s a big game player who has proven influential in domestic success for River Plate and City, and played a key role in delivering international silverware for Argentina.
A home tie against Atletico’s biggest rivals with a spot in the next round of the Champions League is as big as they come – at least at this stage of the season – and if Alvarez maintains his superb prolificness combined with his hard work ethic to disrupt this Real Madrid backline, then Atleti have every chance of progressing beyond the last-16.
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