It feels like an eternity ago given that the international break providing an unwelcome interruption to the beginning of the 2014/15 campaign, but Stoke's 1-0 victory over Manchester City in the previous Premier League weekend was one of the shock results of the season -- regardless of happens over the next 35 games.
Stoke hadn't ever scored a Premier League goal at the Etihad, and failed to win away at the top 12 last season. Their victory over City, generally supreme at home, was a stunning result, with Mark Hughes deserving great credit for the way his tactics outwitted Manuel Pellegrini. It points to the way Stoke -- and many other sides -- should be playing away at top-class opposition.
Hughes was appointed to bring a more proactive style to Stoke but after half a decade of many teams attempting to replicate Barcelona's style of football, there was something distinctly Atletico Madrid about the way Stoke went about playing City.
Maybe it was the red-and-white stripes or the fact that they were overpowering an expensive cast of opponents, but more than anything else, it was their tactical approach -- the discipline, the commitment, the cohesion and the compactness of the side. This, perhaps, was the first major victory that felt inspired by Atletico's 2013/14 title-winning campaign.
Stoke's recent 1-0 win at Man City felt like an 'Atletico' victory, proof of the Liga side's impact.
It feels like Atletico aren't receiving anywhere near enough credit, perhaps because their season finished on such a sour note -- the last-gasp defeat to Real Madrid in the European Cup final. It was a loss that overshadowed the title success, which is nevertheless by far the most unthinkable league victory of the modern era.
The financial disadvantage Atletico were fighting against was truly ridiculous, with Real Madrid having a wage bill of 220 million euros, Barcelona of 195 million and Atletico just 72 million.
Triumphing against the odds should make Atletico a template for almost every club in Europe. More attention may be on Germany in the aftermath of their World Cup victory, but in reality there was relatively little to admire about Joachim Low's side from a purely tactical perspective -- it was a simple 4-3-3, with relatively standard players in each position. The real genius of Germany, in truth, was in a much wider context -- the overhauling of their youth development system and the production of so many talented players.
Atletico's genius, though, was more specific. This is not, in reality, a well-run football club -- Atletico were something of a laughing stock for the majority of this century thanks to chronic financial mismanagement. Diego Simeone's appointment has done wonders for the side; Atletico became possibly the most organised side -- particularly without the ball -- in the history of football.
Diego Simeone has built an Atletico team that other underdogs should be copying.
The most amazing thing about Atletico's La Liga success was that it was achieved with less than 50 percent of possession over the course of the entire season - 48.9 percent, in fact. It's impossible to overstate how rare this is, especially in an era where ball retention has taken on more importance than ever before -- Spain, of course, is the epicentre of that movement. Atletico weren't ball hoarders; they weren't even particularly good passers. They were best without possession, because they were so good on the break.
What Atletico excelled at, in particular, was tackling. They were the most prolific ball-winners of any La Liga club, winning 24.6 tackles per game, roughly 20 percent higher than the league average. And, to bring this back to Stoke, this isn't far away from the Pulis approach -- no regard for possession, a strong emphasis on tackling.
Hughes has a different approach but Stoke's approach without possession at the Etihad was very similar to Atletico's all of last season. In particular, their pressing was excellent. "Pressing" remains something of a misunderstood concept in football, sometimes taken to mean frantically chasing opponents high up the pitch and reliant upon pure stamina rather than organisation.
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Nothing could be further from the truth -- top-level sides press in an incredibly detailed, intricate manner. Atletico are masters of setting "pressing traps," encouraging opponents to play the ball into certain players in certain situations -- from central midfielders to advanced full-backs, for example, which would act as the "trigger" for Atletico's players to spring into life, suddenly pushing forward and closing down opponents as a unit.
This is something Stoke have often done well -- their cohesion when attempting to win back possession against Chelsea in a 3-2 home victory last year was also noteworthy.
It was interesting that this pressing worked so efficiently against Manchester City, too. Back in February, The Sunday Times' Jonathan Northcroft interviewed Jon Walters and produced a fantastic guide to Stoke's successful pressing against Manchester City (in a goalless draw) earlier that season. The detail was remarkable, showing the complexity of Stoke's approach: showing City into uncomfortable situations and then pressing suddenly at the same moment. They carried out that approach perfectly at the weekend.
Mame Biram Diouf played the 'Diego Costa role' to perfection vs. Man City.
In particular, it was notable how compact the side remained, with Peter Crouch and Mame Biram Diouf dropping off and getting goal-side of City's two holding midfielders, something Diego Costa and David Villa (or Raul Garcia) did admirably last season.
Their counter-attacking, too, was brilliant. The wide players, Walters (replaced by Peter Odemwingie at half-time) and Victor Moses charged forward brilliantly while midfielder Steven N'Zonzi was the game's most prolific dribbler, such was his determination to turn defence into attack smoothly.
Then, of course, there was Diouf's brilliant goal -- receiving the ball on the edge of his own box, haring past two opposition challenges and finishing coolly. It was, put simply, a "Diego Costa goal."
Barcelona remain the ultimate template for long-term team development, but their successful era under Pep Guardiola was achieved thanks to a consistent philosophy over a few decades. In football, such long-term thinking is often sorely lacking, and Atletico's style is more of a 'quick fix' option. Perhaps Pulis' revival of Crystal Palace last season, coincidentally, is another good example.
Despite the sale of several key players, Mandzukic and Griezmann have already fitted nicely into Simeone's system.
Back in Madrid, you could say that Simeone himself is attempting to replicate his own approach. Stripped of four key players -- Costa, Villa, Filipe Luis and Thibaut Courtois -- Simeone has an interesting rebuilding job on his hands. The most interesting part about it is his deployment of his two new attackers. Striker Mario Mandzukic is extremely disciplined, something he showed in particular throughout his first year at Bayern Munich -- a one-man pressing machine in deep, central positions to keep his side compact. He lacks the acceleration of Costa, though, so Simeone has deployed another newcomer, Antoine Griezmann, just behind him.
While many expected Griezmann to be fielded on the left and Koke brought into a central role, the Frenchman's explosiveness is needed in the front two to provide that counter-attacking threat. It also means Koke can continue in the tight midfield unit that excelled last year; as a result, the team's overall organisation remains hugely admirable.
The system will be tested this weekend in the derby at the Bernabeu, the scene of Atletico's classic 1-0 victory over Real Madrid last year. Atletico might be the underdogs, but they're the side everyone else should seek to learn from.
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