3 stats: Atleti crash to defeat on Mallorca

Atlético Madrid have suffered a third consecutive defeat to Mallorca for the first time since 1998, as Javier Aguirre beat his former team with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Verdat Muriqi — who scored in his fifth consecutive game.

Here are three stats to tell the story of the game:

5: Games without a win, matching Diego Simeone’s worst streak

Things aren’t just bad at Atleti. They are seriously bad.

This run without a victory is now up to five games, matching El Cholo’s worst run in charge with five-game winless streaks from August 2014 (three draws, two defeats) and February 2020 (two draws, three defeats).

This time, it’s two draws, three defeats, but against weak opposition.

In 2014, that run included Real Madrid twice as well as FC Barcelona. In 2020, it included Juventus, Barcelona and Villarreal.

This run has featured Bayer Leverkusen, Cádiz, Porto, Espanyol and Mallorca. On paper, that could have been 15 points.

Since Yannick Carrasco’s missed penalty against Bayer Leverkusen, Atlético have ranked fifth in LaLiga with 5.07 expected points from three games, but have only collected one, consequentially sitting 17th in form over that period. That suggests a return to the norm soon, but it’s a staggering underperformance.

Atleti’s form is concerning, and it looks as though it could get worse before it gets better, although a Copa del Rey clash with Tercera RFEF side Sociedad Deportiva Almazán should at least end the winless run. ‘Should’ being the key word.

0.02%: Shot conversion rate across Atleti’s last three games

Atlético have scored with just one of 55 attempts on goal in their last three matches against Porto, Espanyol and Mallorca, with João Félix’s strike against the Catalans at the Metropolitano being the only attempt to hit the back of the net. Against Porto, a goal was scored in the 95th minute, but it was an own goal from a Carrasco corner rather than a goal originating from an Atlético shot.

Photo by JAIME REINA/AFP via Getty Images

Álvaro Morata has led the line against both Mallorca and Espanyol but is now without a goal in five games, and Atleti are dreadfully lacking a number nine to provide an end product. When resorting to long balls, the lack of presence in the final third is proving problematic.

In total, that run has built up 4.81 xG with just one goal scored. At the other end, the opposing conversion rate is 0.14% with four goals scored from 29 shots across those three matches, with an xG of 3.93.

3: Passes in the final third from Yannick Carrasco

There was good news and bad news when considering Carrasco’s performance in particular. He is one of several players whose form has vanished this season, and he at last made his first pass into the final third since the game against Cádiz to end a run of back-to-back matches without doing so.

As Carrasco is one of Atleti’s most important players in progression, this is a major concern. The Belgian only had three passes into the final third against Mallorca, another worry. That’s the lowest average over three games since December 2021, when the Rojiblancos also went through a sticky patch of three consecutive defeats to Real Madrid, Sevilla and Granada.

Once again, we see that Carrasco goes with the flow of the team, rather than having the quality to influence the game further.

Carrasco also received the ball from a pass only nine times across his 60 minutes at Visit Mallorca Stadium. This is his lowest figure when playing at least 45 minutes in a match since, again, December 2021. He appears to be hiding at the worst possible time, with one eye on his World Cup participation.