Talking points: Villarreal 1-2 Atlético Madrid

Atlético Madrid secured a hugely important three points in Vila-Real on Monday night as they started the week with a 2-1 win which included an 87th minute winner from substitute Saúl Ñíguez to send Atleti fans wild.

Early on, Axel Witsel had nodded in a header as he arrived at the far post from a corner, but in-form Alexander Sorloth pulled the scoreline back level early in the second period for Villarreal. That teed up Saúl perfectly for his dramatic late winner.

Here are four talking points from the game.

1. Saúl was worth keeping after all!

If you closed your eyes in the final minutes of this game and thought of 2016, you wouldn’t have been surprised to hear the commentators scream a crucial late goal from the edge of the box by Saúl Ñíguez. In 2024, it was quite the shock.

When the ball fell his way in the dying moments, it was almost too good to be true for Saúl to be perfectly positioned to be able to open up his body and look to up and place the ball into the bottom corner with great composure. In a split-second he seemed to show more composure than he has in several months in an Atleti shirt.

His celebration showed quite how much this goal meant to him. It was a landmark moment not only for getting the result on the day and helping the team to the win, but also after a very difficult period for him. If this is a turning point, it would be welcomed by everyone.

“He has always maintained the same spirit to work. He has shown humility to accompany the club,” Diego Simeone said post-match. “Now he plays a little less, but I always keep in mind his ability and he brought out things we were used to. He used to score goals, like Marcos, who has to score them again because they gave us a lot.”

2. Why was Rodrigo Riquelme sacrificed?

One of the more surprising moments of the night was at half-time when Diego Simeone made the surprising call to withdraw Rodrigo Riquelme, who had delivered the cross to Axel Witsel for the opener and was among the best performers on the pitch during the first 45 minutes as he patrolled the left flank.

This was one of those games where Simeone opted to experiment with both Riquelme and Lino in the team, with Riquelme in the wing-back role and Lino in a more central midfield role to start with, but that changed as Stefan Savić came on at the break to mix things up and dominate more in the middle with aerial power from the Montenegrin.

Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images

Post-match, El Cholo explained the call, highlighting that he was seeking “more aggressiveness on the left, we got a lot of crosses from there and with Lino we could cut them out”. It seems that once again, Simeone preferred the defensive side of the Portuguese winger’s game to the Spaniard’s.

It raises question marks about how long this battle for the left will continue. It seems evident that Lino is the preferred choice, but for how long is Riquelme willing to be a rotation option? His form this season when playing has largely been good enough to earn him a starting spot at almost any other side in Spain outside of the big two.

3. But credit must also go to Diego Simeone

If Diego Simeone is criticised for one thing in the past couple of seasons, it has been his use of his substitutes. With limited squad depth, he hasn’t had much to work with and he has still found ways to dumbfound supporters with the changes which he has made, often being more conservative than some would like while others have simply not been impressed by his persistence with players like Saúl.

Here, it was another substitute who scored the winning goal as Saúl scored the 11th goal by a substitute for Atlético Madrid in LALIGA this season. In doing so, he provided the club with a crucial win against a side who are not far off competing for Europe themselves. It’s time that Simeone got some of the credit for that too.

That accounts for just under one in every five goals scored by Atlético, which can be understood in many different ways. One of the main ones being the strength of options in attack, where Antoine Griezmann, Álvaro Morata, Memphis Depay and Ángel Correa are all capable of being match-winners whether they start or they come off the bench.

The other is that Simeone is using his bench well and is creating real competition for places with excellent man management. There is very rarely a case of an Atleti sub going through the motions, as one Portuguese forward was guilty of last season, but rather there are players coming off the bench with a point to prove.

4. What if...?

Two of the stand-out performers in this game were in defence, where Axel Witsel stood out for more than just his first goal for the club, and César Azpilicueta bossed the backline superbly. The pair of them bring experience and composure to defence, but also add value with their skill on the ball and their leadership off it.

It does make you think what could have been if Atleti had these players when they were closer to their peak. Witsel was linked with Atlético for many years before he eventually made the move, and Azpilicueta was also connected before he joined from Chelsea last summer.

Photo by Manuel Queimadelos/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

Atlético’s transfer policy of looking for these so-called ‘market opportunities’ is allowing them to bring in some excellent players like this duo, but it also underlines just how much stronger Atleti could be if they were a little more ambitious in competing with the financial top dogs in the European game to bring in players like this.

For now, Simeone has no choice but to settle for two players who are nearing the end of their careers and have plenty to offer in different ways, and he has adapted accordingly, but Atleti fans can only be left to dream of what might have been.