How much worse is their squad, really?
They have invested a fair bit themselves, and if you look past the big names, you'll find that a lot of RM and Barca-stars are getting old.
I think their squad compares quite well with RM and Barca.
And to the last point, thats not how it works, the team with a 13 points lead is the one gifting us with the opportunity to get back into the race, not the other way around, at most you can we gifted it back to them in the end, but it never should have been a race to begin with.
I listened to Lowes podcast last week, and agree with them - what Atletico players would go into Barcelonas or Reals eleven? Their two biggest stars are rejects from these clubs.
It's a bit depending on how you look at it, I also agree with you that the squads are roughly equal, but if anything, Atletico are the smallest club and the weakest squad. I like many of their players though.
That they have been able to invest in themselves is to a very large degree BECAUSE of Simeone, we all remember your banner from that derby before he arrived, right?
No, it's how it works. The feelings that have been felt throughout the season are a bit irrelevant.
Barcelona and Real went pretty much clean for a while, while Atletico started to drop points. Look at the numbers of the two halves, their true level is closer to 38 than 48.
It's a bit mean to blame them for overperforming for the first half (while rivals underperformed). If anything they showed great mental strength in a lot of games these last weeks.
