Simeone: Atletico need new energy and reinforcement in few positions

Diego Simeone is looking to add some fresh faces to an Atletico Madrid team that "needs new vitality."

have lost nine matches and surrendered 42 goals in their

championship defense, their lowest statistics since the 2011-12 season when Simeone was hired midway through the season.

They finished the season well, winning nine of their last 12 games to ensure a top-four finish and a spot in the

for next season.

Simeone is confident in his team's abilities but believes that Atleti could strive to make some energizing transfers.

"We have a strong squad. In almost all areas, we have players who can give us what we want. We don't need many players, but we do need some to reinforce a team that needs new energy," said Simeone. 

Because he believed he had not done enough to address the team's problems, the Atleti leader took responsibility for the team's failings.

"We suffered a lot with the central defenders – [Stefan] Savic and [Jose] Gimenez have had injuries and setbacks. They seem like excuses, but they are realities. I couldn't solve it in the best way. 

"There's always a lot of self-criticism and it's harsher than what the media says. We want to win. The club's goal is to get in the Champions League, but ours is to win. 

"I'm not happy with this season at all. After winning LaLiga, I always had the hope of being closer to defending it. It's a good lesson in life to keep learning," said Simeone. 

"The 4-4-2 and 5-3-2 that we were using – that also made me feel a bit dizzy. There is not much difference between the two but I could have done more than I did. 

"We have to refine things. We suffered with the absence of [Kieran] Trippier and were not able to solve it as I would have liked. [Marcos] Llorente played a whole year in a position where he couldn't show what he showed last season. 

"It was an unusual season. We're not used to conceding so many goals and we lost many games. But with all the difficulties we qualified for the Champions League with two games to spare." 

For the first time since June 2022, Atleti will try to end the season by defeating Real Sociedad on Sunday and collecting back-to-back away LaLiga victories.

Under Simeone, Los Colchoneros have won six of their ten road games versus Sociedad, compared to only six of the previous 28.

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