The creative midfielder has defended the Vicente Calderon side's aggressive style of play and has nothing but praise for head coach Diego Simeone
Arda Turan has admitted that Atletico Madrid do not always play "pretty football", but has stressed that they have no other option if they want to be successful as they don't have any players with the individual quality of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
The reigning Spanish champions have been criticised for their aggressive style of play, but Turan is not impressed and has made it clear that winning is all that matters for Diego Simeone's men.
"Our football might not be pretty, but it’s winning football. Sometimes, the teams playing the nicest football don’t win games or titles," Arda told Fifa's official website.
"Certainly there are times when we’d like to have more of the ball, but we don’t have Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi in our side, so we have to be a real team and work hard.
"We need to defend more than Madrid or Barcelona, but that style has made us champions.
"I respect everyone’s right to an opinion, and I too enjoy the football played by the likes of Barca or Bayern Munich. However, I prefer our own style more."
The Turkey international then went on to hail Simeone's role in Atletico's recent success.
"When Simeone came in, the first thing he said to us was: ‘If we stop the opposition from scoring and get a goal ourselves, then we’ll win.’
"The key thing was not to concede goals, which meant the team had to stay compact and defend as a unit. Our recipe is: work and more work.
"Each game is like a final and we have to focus on every opponent. Barça and Madrid have more money and more quality than us, but with our mentality of taking it ‘game by game’ and playing for each other we can compete with them."
