Giuliano Simeone Faces Criticism Amid Atlético Madrid's Struggles

Diego Simeone is used to noise around Atlético Madrid. This time, it circles his own family.

Giuliano has been involved in every game for Atlético this season, starting three times in La Liga and featuring in the opening Champions League clash against Liverpool. His only outing from the bench came on the first weekend, a 2-0 league win over Malaga on August 19. For a young winger still carving out a career, it is a healthy amount of football. For some supporters, it is too much.

Accusations of favouritism have followed his every minute. Social media has turned his surname into a talking point, his selection into an argument. Every team sheet is dissected. Every touch weighed against the idea that he is there because of blood, not merit.

Simeone is having none of it.

The Atlético coach has shut the door on the debate, refusing to be dragged into a public defence of his son’s place in the squad. Asked about the online criticism and the noise around Giuliano’s minutes, the Argentine cut it short. Performances, he insisted, are the only measure that matters. “I have nothing to say. Giuliano's actions and work speak for themselves,” he said, brushing aside the questions before Sunday’s trip to San Sebastian.

The family subplot is unfolding against a far more pressing backdrop: Atlético’s early-season wobble.

They travel to face Real Sociedad at the Reale Arena on the back of two bruising defeats. First came a 3-0 dismantling by Athletic, a result that stripped away the aura of defensive control. Then a loss at Liverpool in the Champions League, exposing the same fragility. Eight goals conceded in five competitive matches tells its own story for a club that built its modern identity on resilience and clean sheets.

The back line, once the bedrock of Simeone’s reign, suddenly looks porous. Mistakes have crept in, distances have opened up, and opponents have found space where, for years, there was only suffocation. The questions about Giuliano’s place feel secondary when set against a team struggling to look like itself.

The trip to San Sebastian arrives as an early test of character. The Reale Arena is no place to seek comfort, and Atlético cannot afford to let a stutter turn into a slide. An away win would not solve everything, but it would steady the ground beneath them and quieten talk of a crisis before it takes hold.

Simeone’s options are not exactly overflowing. Pablo Barrios is sidelined with a muscle injury, robbing the midfield of energy and invention. In attack, the ongoing absence of Alexander Sorloth limits the coach’s choices in the final third and piles more responsibility on those available to find answers.

So the picture is clear. Atlético head north needing a result, needing a performance, and needing to look like Atlético again. Giuliano will run out into that storm with the rest of them, his every movement under the microscope, his place in the team judged on the same unforgiving stage as everyone else.

If the Rojiblancos can lock the back door and emerge from San Sebastian with three points, the noise around selection, surnames and perceived favouritism will fade into the background. If they cannot, the scrutiny – on father, son and squad alike – will only sharpen as the gap to the summit begins to stretch.