Giuliano Simeone joined Atlético’s academy in 2019, but he’s
not just dining out on having a famous surname. Halfway through his
second campaign with the first team, the 23-year-old is proving he
has the technical quality, character and grit to live up to his
father’s legendary standards.
It takes a certain type of player to play for Diego Simeone. We
had a good idea that would be the case when he became the Atlético
Madrid manager in December 2011 – and we sure do now, some 14
years later.
For Simeone, however, it hasn’t always been easy to find
those players. After his first title win in 2014, Atlético
were catapulted into a new dimension of growth; one that brought
bigger budgets, a shiny new stadium, and made more talented players
accessible.
But while those resources were welcome, it hasn’t made it any
easier to preserve their blue-collar DNA. Remaining a hard-nosed
Simeone team while accommodating ‘stars’ is a process they have had
to endure much trial and error with since 2014.
One of the more novel solutions in this period has been the
arrival of Simeone’s son, Giuliano, who joined the club’s academy
in 2019.
Where his father seeks footballers who live and conduct
themselves in the way he would if he could still wear the Atlético
shirt, what better than an actual Simeone? Even better,
how about a Simeone who turns up every day trying to prove he’s not
playing only because of his surname?
Given the opportunity, few doubted that Giuliano would have the
character to represent the club. The question was whether he’d have
sufficient quality to go with it, or whether he’d rapidly hit a
ceiling of being enthusiastic to his detriment; his pure
footballing qualities never quite able to close the gap to the
physical and emotional ones, and limiting his possibilities at
first-team level.
In the beginning, it looked like a fair question to ask. But
halfway through his second campaign, the 23-year-old is now well on
the way to providing an emphatic answer.
Born to
Play for Atlético Madrid
Giuliano’s DNA will always be his calling card on the pitch.
Aggressive, intense, and driven by an innate desire to compete, his
minimum contribution on a weekly basis is anything but the minimum.
He is a throwback competitor who ensures that his less precise days
are sustained by a contagious physical effort.
“[Giuliano] transmits something that is very difficult to go and
buy. Either you have it or you don’t,” says father Diego.
The best news for manager and club alike, however, is that
Giuliano’s character is starting to become less relevant. One, for
the fact that we now take it as an immovable trait. And two, that
we’re now seeing him able to influence matches in more varied ways,
with increasingly decisive contributions on the attacking end. His
seven assists in 28 games this term is already just two shy of his
total from 50 appearances last season (9).
But we can confirm Giuliano’s progression, in part, even without
delving into his goal production. One only need look at how much is
father is now relying on him to gauge his growing importance.
In his first campaign between August 2024 and May 2025, Giuliano
was the team’s eighth most-used outfielder in terms of minutes
played (1,940). Since the Club World Cup last summer, he has played
more than any other Atlético outfielder (2,342).
That’s an especially notable jump when considering the attacking
recruits the club brought in last summer, in Álex Baena, Thiago
Almada, Nico González and Giacomo Raspadori. When competition is
harder than it once was, Giuliano is playing more than ever.
The key to that is his balanced contribution between attack and
defence, and in particular, what happens when one turns into the
other.
On the way from defence to attack, Giuliano is a transitional
menace. Going the other way, he is feisty in his counter-pressing
and generous in his recovery runs. So much so that it’s hard to
know whether to refer to Giuliano as an attacking defender or a
defensive attacker.
Either way, he is meshing both in a way that makes life easier
for his father’s pursuit of team balance. (It’s worth noting that
had the season started in September, rather than August, Atlético
would be three points off the lead in La Liga and have
the best defensive record in the division.)
From his starting position on the right wing, the 23-year-old
constantly flows between right-back, wing-back, right midfielder
and support striker over the course of 90 minutes, depending on the
phase of the game.
Logically, that shapeshifting also happens on the team level,
with Giuliano’s versatility a key ingredient in permitting Atlético
to switch between formations and shapes on the go. Through his
positionless mentality and commitment to each of those mini roles,
more things are possible.
One of the clearest ways we see that is on the defensive side of
the ball. Atlético use the classic 4-4-2 as a starting point but
frequently shift in and out of back-five systems, depending on
where on the field they’re defending.
Higher up the pitch, Simeone is a snappy presser who launches
out to close down opposition full-backs. But if the opposition are
established in possession, he drops back to form a back line of
five, bolstering their defensive strength on the flanks and
allowing the right-back to shift inside and cover another attacking
channel.
The variable is, of course, the 22-year-old’s willingness to
play that way. Try telling a €70-million winger that, along with
being prominent in the final third and attacking the back post, he
needs to play in the defensive line when Atlético – a team who are
content to defend deep – don’t have the ball.
Nine times out of 10, that’s going to be a tough sell. For
Giuliano, it’s simply his job.
While this grants Simeone Sr. more flexibility in setting
Atlético up without the ball, in a more dynamic and modern take on
collective defending, it also allows them to quickly switch between
the main defensive approaches: being more aggressive from the
4-4-2/4-3-3 or defending in their own half with a back five.
Despite Atlético readily falling into that back-five shape with
Giuliano tacked onto the right-hand side, the average distance from
their own goal of their ball recoveries in La Liga this season (43
metres) is their highest since 2016-17 (43.1). Their possession
average is also the highest in any La Liga season in the Simeone
era (53.3%).
Rather than serving to make them more defensive, the
back five has made them more variable in the ways they can
defend.
Nobody embodies that spring from disciplined defending to
energetic pressing more than Giuliano. In La Liga this season, no
winger has more possession recoveries (81) or combined tackles and
interceptions (45) than him. He is also the top-ranked winger for
the expected
goals (xG) value of sequences initiated (3.1), underlining his
ability to recover the ball and tee-up scoring opportunities,
typically high up the pitch.
It’s that bridge between defence and attack where Giuliano truly
shines, and it’s part of what is making Atlético’s right side one
of the most versatile and productive across Europe.
Giuliano Has
Electrified the Right Wing (With Help From Marcos
Llorente)
In La Liga this season, 40.5% of Atlético’s attacks have come
down their right side; the third-highest percentage in the
division. In the UEFA
Champions League, that number jumps to 44.2%, which is the
fourth highest out of 36 teams.
Spearheaded by Giuliano, their right flank is now a constant
hive of activity. And that’s especially the case when he’s
supported by Marcos
Llorente at right-back. Together, they are a duo of Swiss army
knives, constantly moving off each other and looking to attack the
opposition’s defensive line at speed.
Even against deeper blocks who limit space, they are still
frequently able to dart in behind through swift give-and-goes or a
well-timed run if their opponents are a step slow.
Otherwise, pure speed to the byline and a cross has also been a
frequent avenue of success. In an era where wingers playing on the
side of their strong foot is becoming increasingly rare, Giuliano
is one of few left at an elite European team still getting plenty
out of driving, straight-line runs on his strong side.
Since the start of the Club World
Cup, his six assists following a carry are the third-most by any
player for a club in Europe’s big five leagues, behind only Michael
Olise (10) and Vinícius Júnior (7). Of course, two players who very
much lean on cutting onto their stronger foot.
Though he shares certain spaces with Europe’s elite wingers,
Giuliano differs in how he gets to his preferred spots on the
pitch. In the absence of jinking dribbles, precise feints and
changes of direction, a la Vinícius, his success relies much more
on what he’s doing when he doesn’t have the ball at his feet.
Through a blend of searing pace, a relentless motor, and
improved timing of runs, Giuliano’s movement without the ball has
become not only key to his own individual success, but Atlético
Madrid’s as a team too.
It would be generous to claim their decision makers planned it
this way, but the surprising rise of Giuliano – paired with
Llorente’s right-back conversion – has occurred just at the same
time as the squad has been majorly boosted in creative passing
quality.
The result is that Atlético’s distributors now have devastating
off-ball attackers to find, while the runners have faith that their
movements will be found.
We can see that in the Champions League this season, where
Giuliano leads all players for defensive line-breaking passes
received (18), piercing the opponent’s back line an average of
three times per game. Atlético, meanwhile, are the team who have
played the most defensive line-breaking passes (48).
There’s an interesting distinction to be made for Atlético, in
that respect. Although they are only just above the competition’s
average for line-breaking passes (averaging 59 per game), the fact
they are the top-ranked side when it comes to breaking the
opposition’s defensive line tells us how they are
engineered to come alive in the final third.
Simeone’s team swing the ball from side-to-side in their
build-up, before sparking into action with quick, wide attacks –
particularly on the right – when they arrive into the final
third.
Along with leading all teams for defensive line-breaking passes
in this season’s Champions League, Atlético also have the largest
share of contributors to the cause. As mentioned previously, there
is no single creator they rely on to feed passes in behind. They
have the most different players (6) with at least five defensive
line-breaking passes in this year’s edition. And that’s without
Álex Baena –
their best executor of the final pass – who has not yet joined
the party due to injury-related absences.
Atlético have the feeders and for now, at least by the numbers,
the premier defensive line attacker in the tournament. The
resulting connection has been just the way that Diego Simeone – who
has never been one for slow, methodical attacks – would have
envisioned it, once his squad came together.
Inevitably, the foundation behind getting in behind the
opposition as often as Giuliano does has a lot to do with mere
repetition of attempts. His 53 runs in behind are the second-most
by a winger in the Champions League this season, and the only two
instances of an Atlético player with 10+ in a single match this
term have both been by him.
Giuliano demands attentive defending for that sheer volume of
testing runs. Take your eye off him or fail to match his movement
and, eventually, he will punish that inattention:
In a season where Giuliano could reach 100 appearances for
Atlético, it’s safe to say that he’s surpassed any expectations
they might have had when he reported to pre-season training in the
summer of 2024. From novelty to first-team fixture – and now
Argentina international – his rise has been fuelled by spirit and
maintained by individual development.
There are plenty of reasons why the club decided to extend his
contract last week, tying him down until 2030. Being Diego
Simeone’s son probably wasn’t the clincher.
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