Mandzukic linked with Atlético exit yet again

Would it be a wise move to let the Croatian leave?

Posted by on June 10th, 2015 in Opinion, Rumours -

Mario Mandzukic linked with move to Man Utd today

Mario Mandzukic linked with move to Man Utd today

Rumours are pushing Mario Mandzukic out of Atlético Madrid, with the latest linking him with Manchester United – but should the Croat go?

‘Super Mario Mandzukic’ scored his last goal against Almeria in late February and since then Griezmann and Torres had to step up to the plate in order to secure Atleti’s third-place finish in the league.

It’s no secret that Mandzukic is a player who needs to be handed the ball in order to score. Even Cholo said that when asked about him.

“He needs to be fed and be surrounded by players who support him.”

The team’s midfield was a horror story this season, with practically none of the precision and intensity that was present in the league-winning campaign the year before..

Yet, all of a sudden it’s Mandzukic’s fault for not scoring goals this season, even though he actually scored 20 times.

Lots of Griezmann’s goals weren’t reliant on to assists or key passes from his team mates, but because of him making the goals on his own. He would capitalize on defenders’ mistakes and use his speed and dribbling to find his way to goal.

So why blame the Croat when our problem was clearly in the midfield?

Rumours have it that Atleti will sign Tevez, but that is seriously a short term solution. The Argentine is 31 years old and it is unclear how much longer he can perform at a high level.

Luciano Vietto is edging closer to his move to Atlético, so that could potentially be another replacement.

The Spanish press says that several English clubs, Wolfsburg and AC Milan are interested in Mandzukic, including today’s report in The Sun, but would it really be wise to let him go?

If Cholo wants to replace Mario, then so be it; however, I don’t think he should leave after just one season.


  • urban

    Great piece of writing by Arthur, I agree with everything you wrote. The question is whether MM9 and Vietto can both be in our team as the transfer of the Argentine seems inevitable.

  • Luis

    Falcao and Costa weren’t particularly fast either. He doesn’t suit the team and to challenge for the title again we need a change up front. I don’t hold anything against him as he has always shown passion for Atleti and 20 goals isn’t a catastrophe but, he has to go.

  • Paweł Kosiński

    Thing is: Mandžukić is a great warrior and a team-first kind of player, but as rightly noted, doesn’t suit our style. He’ll thrive at a club with a creative midfield and/or pacy wingers like Juventus’s or United’s or Liverpool’s. A striker at Atleti has to be pacy otherwise we don’t be able to return to a trophy-winning counter-attacking style from 2013/14, which is a top priority after a failed 2014/15 experiment called “we too can play possession-based football”. No we can’t. We urgently need a Jackson Martínez or a Jonathas.

  • Mohammed Basith

    What if we have the so called creative midfield with Oliver koke arda Correa next season?

  • ToHaJu

    Falcao and Costa weren’t fat either !!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Paweł Kosiński

    Apart from Koke it’s all a great unknown. Arda had only 6 assists last season, Correa is untested in European football in general and Oliver is untested in La Liga.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    He is a good player, a strong fighter and a great person, and maybe his lack of goals at the end of the season wasn’t his fault, but he doesn’t fit in our system, so he has to go
    That simple

    And I have to agree with Pawel, we can not play possession-based football, we only have one Koke and one Arda, and to play possession-based football we need to have at least 3 Kokes and 3 Ardas, and we just can’t afford that (of course I’m talking about the best Koke and the best Arda, not the versions of 2014-15)

    I’m not concerned about selling Mandzukic, what I’m really concerned about it is for how much, because -unlike many people think- we are not a great sellers, in the last decade we made only 3 great sales, those of Torres, Kun & De Gea (Falcao isn’t included because very few people know how much we paid for him and how much we got)
    But look at other sales : Costa for 38M, and we only got about 17M of them, Forlan for 5M (even if he was 32, we still could have got more), Simao for 900K, Maxi for FREE !

    We are not that kind of club that sell their top scorer for 65M like Napoli and actually get all of those 65M, or sell their 31-year-old defender for 20M like Valencia did last season with Mathieu, maybe it’s because we get involved a lot with 3rd parties and with Jorge Mendes (most of the times, Mendes is both the 3rd party and the player’s agent)
    But Mandzukic is neither involved with a 3rd party nor represented by Mendes, so we should at least get our 22M back, and it shouldn’t be that hard, especially that next season is the first one in EPL after the 7 Billion TV rights deal .

  • Jeronamo Pakor Jones

    I believe he should be sold. I know everyone has mentioned how he doesn’t fot our style and some said that it isn’t his fault he didn’t score more but I disagree, I think the problem is all with him, after watching him this season and seeing his lack of enthusiasm when it comes to chasing down players or putting in that bit of extra work I believe mentally or just ability wise he isn’t good enough for us and it’s that simple.

    I don’t want to see him here next season

  • Ringo

    He was a good partner to Griezmann, I think. I agree about the midfield part, but I think that’s mostly Gabi getting weaker and Tiago getting older and Mario (Suarez) hasn’t been in top form for two years now. Koke and Arda had to do (even) more defensive work than they did last season and shortly after they’ve gotten into shape, around march or something, they showed tired legs and tired minds.

    I think, but mostly hope, that with Óliver, Correa and a new CDM and Koke being the CM without dropping back there all the time to aid the double pivote of last year will make a huge difference. No, we are not a possession-based team, but with a swifter midfield we can at least be better at that, and also have more accurate counter attacks, because even those were terrible this season.

    There are offensive qualities in this team, we just need refreshment in midfield. Mandzukic isn’t my favorite player at all, but he’s a decent target man and it’s not his fault the midfield forgot how to pass. He himself actually sent some decent throughballs (both with his feet and his head) to Griezmann this season. My main criticism against him was his searching of ‘fights’ on the pitch, couldn’t stand that. He wasn’t very technically gifted in the dribbling area, but lately I started to wonder if that’s really necessary.

    So, I won’t mind losing Mandzukic, but I think we’d be wrong to blame him for the lack of goals this season, at least when we’re talking about all of the season.