SAM ALLARDYCE claims Atletico Madrid’s success in both the Champions League and La Liga underlines why it is so important to concentrate on a well-drilled defence.

Despite lacking the star names that populate the squads of their rivals, Barcelona and Real Madrid, Atletico stand on the brink of the Champions League final after yesterday’s semi-final first-leg win over Bayern Munich, and are also level on points with Barca at the top of the Spanish league table.

Diego Simeone has moulded an extremely well-organised line-up that regularly out-work their opponents, and while Real Madrid have shipped 32 goals this season, Atletico have conceded just 16 goals in their 35 La Liga matches.

Allardyce has regularly talked of the importance of keeping clean sheets in recent weeks, and with Sunderland having recorded three shut-outs in their last four matches, the Black Cats boss feels defensive performances will dictate the outcome of the relegation battle.

Allardyce said: “The more goals you concede ultimately results in being in the bottom three, not the more goals you score. The fewer goals you concede, ultimately you will finish in the top half of the table irrespective of how many goals you score.

“Everybody goes on about goals, goals and more goals, but if you want the perfect example, you take Atletico Madrid, who have a superbly-drilled team which is a breath of fresh air today.

“I coach defending an awful lot, but I don't think too many teams in the Premier League or in the world of football or in Europe actually coach defending anymore, certainly not the full-backs.

“Seeing Atletico Madrid last night, how they played and how they then defended what they had against a side that is one of the favourites to win the Champions League and is well ahead in the German league…

“It's an art, defending - everybody has forgotten that – it's a tactical art to be able to sense danger and block people's crosses and get your toe in without fouling them now, and they are very, very good at it indeed.

“The whole team buys into it – you see Fernando Torres on the edge of his own box defending. You never saw that at Liverpool or Chelsea.

“That's how good the manager is and that's why they are successful. They are successful because they concede fewer goals than everybody else and only need one to win.

“Now, everybody can say, 'Well, that's not entertaining', but everybody is eulogising Simeone's tactics now. I wouldn't think they would do that in the Premier League so much. 'He's boring this guy, he defends too much' – that's what he'd get here.”

Sunderland edged out of the bottom three when they drew with Arsenal last weekend, and will remain above the drop zone if they win at Stoke City tomorrow.

They boast a better goal difference than Norwich, who are on the same points total, and Newcastle, who are currently a point below them, but Allardyce continues to be frustrated by his side’s failure to convert winning positions in the last few months.

He said: “Conservatively, we should just need one win to stay up now, and that's a conservative estimate of the points we have thrown away, particularly from winning positions or being the dominant team and not winning.

“It's been very, very frustrating for me that the lads haven't seen those games through to victories and we could all breathe a lot easier going into this Stoke game. But we still very much have to turn those performances into victories and we have got to try to start that on Saturday against Stoke City.”