“You’re even entrusting Lee Kang-in with scoring?” ... Atlético’s startling reality: midfielders score more than forwards

[Financial News] In soccer, scoring is the forwards’ domain and their most important job. Yet there is one unusual team where midfielders have scored at least twice as many goals as forwards, and even defenders have outscored the forwards. That team is Atlético Madrid (hereafter ATM), a Spanish La Liga powerhouse where Lee Kang-in, 25, is playing.
ATM have scored 22 goals in all competitions this season. Midfielders have combined for a remarkable 11 of them, exactly half (50%) of the team’s total. By contrast, the forwards tasked with scoring have managed just 5 goals—a paltry figure, even compared with the 6 scored by defenders.
The influential Spanish daily El País took an in-depth look at ATM’s unusual scoring pattern on the 20th (Korea time), highlighting tactical changes by head coach Diego Simeone. Lee Kang-in, alongside Alex Baena, is firmly at the heart of the story.
According to the newspaper, Baena has scored 5 of the midfielders’ 11 goals, making him the team’s leading scorer. Lee Kang-in and Giuliano Simeone have added 2 each, while Johnny Cardoso and Pablo Barrios have contributed 1 apiece. Meanwhile, key forwards such as Julián Álvarez and Alexander Sørloth, signed with high hopes, have yet to score even their first goal in an official match and are enduring a severe goal drought.


Players operating behind the strikers have been making up for the forwards’ poor form, but this also reflects Simeone’s philosophy. A tough midfielder during his playing career, he has persistently urged his players on the training ground, “The goal is at the penalty spot!”—telling them not to wait for crosses from the flanks, but to make aggressive runs into the box. Simeone’s dissatisfaction last season with the scoring output from the second line is now being borne out in this season’s numbers.
Under this tactical approach, Lee Kang-in has also been given a new assignment. At Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (PSG), he mainly served as a link between the wing and midfield; now at ATM, he is also being asked to score goals himself. El País reported, “To address the attack’s lack of goals, Simeone even experimented with using Lee Kang-in and Baena as false nines up front.” Deploying Lee, an attacking midfielder, at the front of the attack shows how highly the coaching staff rates his outstanding ability to beat the press and shoot.


Already on 2 goals this season, Lee Kang-in has also continued to perform his playmaking duties, including the pass that initiated the attack against Manchester United in the Champions League and a 93% pass-completion rate against Espanyol. If he adds a direct scoring threat to his ability to build attacks, his tactical value is expected to soar.
In both of the seasons when ATM won La Liga in the past—2013-14 (36%) and 2020-21 (34%)—midfielders accounted for a strong share of the team’s goals. Although this season is still in its early stages, the 50% figure shows the extreme form of Simeone’s “midfielder-striker” approach.
Lee Kang-in is evolving from a mere provider into a difference-maker, responsible for 9% of the team’s total goals. Able to move freely between the wings, midfield and even the false-nine role up front, he will be looking to find the net in the Champions League away match against Stuttgart in Germany on the 21st.


[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter