Soccer
Diego Simeone is remaining calm in the face of Atletico Madrid’s winless start to the season, as they prepare to visit Alaves on Saturday.
Atletico have not won either of their two LaLiga matches in 2025-26, losing 2-1 to Espanyol on matchday one before Elche held them to a 1-1 draw in their home opener last week.
They have never started a season with three winless matches in LaLiga under Simeone, last doing so in 2009-10 under Abel Resino, when they failed to win in their first five (D3 L2).
But after a busy period of comings and goings in the transfer market, Simeone believes patience will be required.
“It’s always difficult to give scores to the work being done with so many new people,” Simeone said at Friday’s pre-match press conference.
“The team has worked well in these matches, with areas for improvement, especially defensively. But anything less than picking up points is not positive, especially in our position.
“We have to focus on improvements, on continuing to build on what went well and, above all, on staying calm. In difficult times, we have to face them calmly in order to play the game the way we want to.”
Atleti have already signed 10 players, including attackers Alex Baena, Thiago Almada and Giacomo Raspadori, while 12 have departed, including Samuel Lino and Angel Correa.
The transfer window closes on Monday, and Simeone is not ruling out any further activity.
“As always at the end of the transfer window, we are keeping an eye on everything until the last day,” he said.
“I’m completely open at this stage to someone coming in or leaving, always with tension and talking daily with the board to finalise the squad as we need to.”
In the lab pic.twitter.com/yMd0I2AKx0
— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) August 28, 2025
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Alaves – Jon Guridi
Guridi has only scored seven goals in 101 LaLiga matches, but two of those have come in his six outings against Atletico.
Los Colchoneros are the only opponent the right-back has scored against in multiple top-flight matches.
Atletico Madrid – Alexander Sorloth
Having opened the scoring against Elche last week, Sorloth has scored 13 goals in 19 LaLiga matches in 2025.
Only Kylian Mbappe (24) has netted more in the competition since the turn of the year, with fellow Atleti forward Julian Alvarez also scoring 13.
Atleti fired 37 crosses into the box on matchday two, their highest tally in LaLiga since November 2023, in a 3-1 win over Villarreal (37). Sorloth could thrive on that service.
MATCH PREDICTION – ATLETICO MADRID WIN
Alaves coach Eduardo Coudet has not won any of his five LaLiga matches against Atletico Madrid (D2 L3).
Only against Real Madrid (P6 L6) has he managed more games without achieving a win in the competition (also five versus Sevilla – D2 L3).
But the hosts should give a decent account of themselves, having gone unbeaten in their last five home LaLiga matches (W3 D2), alternating between a win and a draw in each, after losing five of their previous seven such games before this run began.
Atletico have also failed to keep a clean sheet in either of their first two matches, while their three goals conceded thus far are their joint-most after two games of a season under Simeone (also three in 2017-18).
It is fair to say Los Colchoneros have had teething problems after a busy transfer window, but their individual quality still makes them favourites to take three points on Saturday.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Alaves – 23.2%
Atletico Madrid – 51.1%
Draw – 25.7%
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