Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Atlético Madrid have 7 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Álex Baena takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álex Baena provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrés Ibargüen provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Rodrigo Mendoza, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Álex Baena
SquadWords at Atlético Madrid training over how hard people work
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atlético Madrid can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Dávid Hancko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Álex Baena at his very best
7‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Kang-In Lee takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kang-In Lee provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julián Álvarez provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atlético Madrid and Elche in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Pablo Barrios falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Atlético Madrid will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gabriel Vega on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Atlético Madrid is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Julián Álvarez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 10 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Atlético Madrid will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gabriel Vega chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Oviedo will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Atlético Madrid were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Position 2, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan David provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Rodrigo Mendoza, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikel Jauregizar has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atlético Madrid can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Julián Álvarez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
With 11 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Julián Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Pablo Barrios falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nil Suárez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Atlético Madrid are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gabriel Vega chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Madrid, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Barcelona; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Álex Baena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alejandro Grimaldo is on it.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Julián Álvarez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Barcelona next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Julián Álvarez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Barrios is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Marked 8.38 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Nobody at Atlético Madrid will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Kang-In Lee takes the afternoon — 8.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kang-In Lee provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Atlético Madrid and Rayo Vallecano, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Barrios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Jonathan David was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.73. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Molina has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Bart Verbruggen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$30.4M was the most the club would pay and PSV were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Álex Baena takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álex Baena provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Julián Álvarez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Atlético Madrid asked and Lanús said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikel Jauregizar has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The fee is $62.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Athletic Bilbao drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Atlético Madrid have gone to PSV with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Bart Verbruggen is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mikel Jauregizar is living that version at Atlético Madrid, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cádiz have kept their man, and Atlético Madrid go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.