Are Atleti the "Best of the Rest" in La Liga?

They have a good team, the best 9 in the world, and a manager that oozes confidence and a winning mentality. They've won 2 Europa Leagues in the last 3 years - an enviable achievement for any team. With their latest triumph, are they a bigger fish than Valencia, Sevilla, Athletic and Malaga?

In my opinion yes they are. Big respect for Atletico. But with a squad and manager like that it's time they got 4th place minimum.

They're still in the same tier as Valencia and Sevilla imo.

I think they are the best out of the rest atm, you can just see it with their performances how much they have improved since Flores' days

In fact if they get a greater squad i can actually see them sniffing around the top two, believe me or not they were boosting some pretty impressive stats last season under Simeone. I just hope that participating in the EL will not have a drastic effect on their league form

Right this minute they are. But you dont get anything for being the best right now, we have to see during the season.

if atleti could play week in week out like they did vs Chelsea they could really do well in the PL and in my eyes they deffinately are the best team after RM and barca in la liga atm

although like Franchise said, that means nothing if they cant maintain it for the entire season

Honestly, They can be, right now for sure but They do have a history of under achieving so I wouldn't say they will finish 3rd yet.

Another worrying thing is their depth, Next to no wingers after Arda, Adrian and Rodriguez. Also, if they lose Falcao they will plummet in my opinion.

Another thing, if they want to stay there they will have to find a replacement for Courtois as I don't think he will stay there next season.

For now, I would say they are on the same level as Valencia and above the likes of Malaga and Sevilla.

I don't think they need 3rd place in the league to be the 3rd best team though. League performances are all about depth, which while important is not the best way to judge a team. If Atleti are successful in any of the 2 knockout competitions they will face (EL or King's Cup) they will have already achieved more titles than would otherwise be obtained from just finishing 3rd and would deserve to keep that title that so far everyone seems to agree they deserve.

so... to be the third best team in la liga you don't have to actually finish third in la liga? how exactly does that work?

if you go by trophies they were second best in la liga last year as they won the uefa cup which is a more difficult competition than barcelona's only copa... complete nonsense, we're the best of the rest in la liga until proven otherwise in the league table (which might well be in a few months)

Well we've been in 3rd place for 3 straiaght seasons. Unless Pochetino does something drastic or we have injury epidemics I don't think it will change. Although I will say that this will probobly be the edgiest confrontation with another La Liga team fighting for 3rd. And I hope it will be the last for a while.

I think Valencia and Atleti are on the same boat, but maybe the one difference could be Falcao who is easily top 5 in his position. The rest of the players on both teams are good, but not consistently great. Valencia have actually greatly improved their squad, whereas we actually lost some good players in order to keep Falcao. I expect Valencia to finish ahead of us because they have such great depth. We are a team well suited to play in knock-out tournaments, we arent consistent enough to put in good performances week in week out.

Valencia are better. Atleti just are a better knock out team

StevieRayVaughan wrote:I think Valencia and Atleti are on the same boat, but maybe the one difference could be Falcao who is easily top 5 in his position. The rest of the players on both teams are good, but not consistently great. Valencia have actually greatly improved their squad, whereas we actually lost some good players in order to keep Falcao. I expect Valencia to finish ahead of us because they have such great depth. We are a team well suited to play in knock-out tournaments, we arent consistent enough to put in good performances week in week out.

This is how I feel about Atleti as well. They can beat any team in the world at the Calderon (Except maybe Madrid ) which helps them in knockout tournaments but they aren't consistent enough to really challenge for the top places in the league.

TBH, they might not be consistent consistent, but they aren't alone in that regard in the sense that most of the teams in the league are very inconsistent such as Malaga for example and they happened to have finished 4th last season and only stopped challenging for 3rd spot with 2/3 games remaining

They might not be as consistent as Barca/Real at the moment but they are definitily consistent enough to claim 3rd spot especially now that they have Simeone who has instilled this determination and urge into Atleti fine tuning their defence and making their attack click despite most of them being fairly new to the team....

What i like about atleti is that when they lose a player they replace the said player with another one, for example they sold Salvio to Benfica and replaced him with Christian Rodriguez(of what i have seen of him, this guy was a steal being free, might well be one of the best LW in the league), he might not play on the same wing but moving Arda to the RW(where Salvio used to play) has offered competition to Adrian who already used to start there last season, also another one, Diego sadly had to be returned to Bremen(even though he was great for Atleti) but even he was replaced with Emre who yet has to start a game although Koke is doing a mighty fine job as their starting AM

The other guy who was sold was Dominguez, he could've been a guy for the future but Miranda-Godin partnership is sure to stay together for another 3 years at least, that would offer atleti enough time to look for another promising defender, probably from Castilla hmmm

Not to mention Olivier Torres has been promoted

All in all i think Atleti were quick in replacing the lost ones, not that they needed a squad overhaul like Valencia or Malaga, i fail to see why they wouldn't finish third this season

One reason why they did so bad last season was because Manzano was not exactly cut for the job and they still had some rebels playing for them, Simeone comes in and the first thing he did was to get rid of Reyes who was a pain in the arse for both Flores and Manzano, Atleti had one of the best if not the best second halves of the season and to no suprise thats when Falcao turned corner and started performing like a €40 mill man

Atleti's team would challenge for big honours as it is, no point in repairing something thats not broken..... One of Atleti's main task ahead keeping Simeone/Falcao/Courtois plus of course making the CL, they do that and this season would be a success for them