Georginio Wijnaldum Says Atletico Madrid Are “More Or Less Like Us”

Football is back, sort of, from it’s sort of “winter break” and Liverpool are back to full steam ahead after beating Norwich on Saturday to add another three points to the gap at the top of the table. Now that that is out of the way, we have Champions League to worry about and a trip to the Estadio Metropolitano ahead on Tuesday, a date with Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid, and potentially even our old enemy Diego Costa. Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum expects a tough match on Tuesday, as Atletico and Liverpool have a lot of similarities in their games.

“They are a lot like us, fighters. They are a team more or less like us, also really difficult to beat,” Gini said recently.

“I think you can see that in their playing style in the competition. They are always battling to get results and they can easily switch at times when it is necessary, they know what they have to do to win the match. So yes, these are going to be really difficult matches.”

As the current title holders of the Champions League, the general notion is that every other team is going to be gunning for them - hoping to show that the mighty Liverpool is indeed fallible. Our smiley midfield maestro doesn’t believe that to be the case, because they haven’t changed anything in their playing tactics and are managing just fine.

“No, not really, because we are doing pretty much the same thing we were doing last season,” Wijnaldum stated.

“We are mostly working on improving the team and becoming a team that is really difficult to beat, so it is essentially the same as last year.

“What we are trying to do is give everything we’ve got and we’ll see what happens at the end of the season. Because during the season you have a lot to deal with, you can get injuries and dips in form, which you may have to work on as a team.

“We try to deal with every situation as well as possible. That is how we see it, we give everything we’ve got and at the end of the season you hope it ends with a trophy.”

With two trophies under their belts from the middle of the season already, and three more on offer at the end, whatever Liverpool are doing is working.