MICAH RICHARDS: I'd love to see street fighter Diego Simeone in England! Atletico Madrid's style may not be for everyone but he's a born winner... and their antics didn't bother me in the slightest

It was when the melee erupted and players from both sides went thundering into each other that I felt a sense of regret.

I'm not for a single second condoning bad behaviour on a football pitch but seeing the dramatic final stages of Manchester City's confrontation with Atletico Madrid unfold made me realise how much I miss playing.

I've read and listened to a lot of the fallout from the Champions League quarter-final and much of it has condemned Diego Simeone and his team. I'm puzzled about the criticism, to be honest, because I absolutely loved what I saw and what they contributed to the spectacle.

If Atletico had tried to go toe-to-toe with City for 180 minutes, the tie would have been over after the first leg in Manchester. And that's what I think so many people are losing sight of now — that there are so many different ways to try to get results.

It's been said that Simeone and Atletico crossed the line of what is acceptable but the only member of his squad I had fault with in terms on what happened on the pitch, was Felipe, whose challenges on Phil Foden were really poor and unnecessary. The rest of the antics on the pitch didn't bother me in the slightest.

Simeone is incredible, a man whose reputation as a winner cannot be questioned. During an era when we have seen two of the all-time great Barcelona and Real Madrid sides, he's led Atletico to La Liga titles, two Champions League finals and two Europa League triumphs.

I would love to see 'streetfighter' Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone in the Premier League

I'd absolutely love to see him in the Premier League — can you imagine the dimension that would be added to the course of a season if he was going up against Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte?

So what if his views on the way to set up a team don't fit in with how you see it. Atletico do play an expansive, possession-based game when the circumstances are right but Simeone knows how to adapt and when to go down a different route.

Football is about variety, overcoming unusual challenges. You would find it boring if everyone played the same because the same teams — those with the best players — would always end up winning. Streetfighters like Atletico will always be around to challenge the established order.

Yes, the first leg of the clash with City was awful and I felt sorry for Atletico's forward players being asked to drop in and play across midfield to form two banks of five men — I don't like the way his players are encouraged to dive, either — but the game plan so nearly paid off.

On another day, City would have been out of the Champions League and the way everything panned out made it as absorbing to watch as anything we have seen in the past week, from the City-Liverpool game at the Etihad to the absorbing drama between Real Madrid and Chelsea.

The focus, of course, has been on the brawl that followed Foden being chopped down late in the game. We all know it carried on down the tunnel and the police were involved in trying to restore order. 

None of it ever looks good on camera but let me explain how it will have felt for those involved.

Adrenaline would have been flowing, the kind of situation that makes you feel alive. There really is nothing better than knowing your team-mates are there to provide back up when you're involved in a confrontation.

Something like that galvanises you. I remember only too well an incident at Wembley in 2011. City had beaten Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final and there was a commotion after Mario Balotelli had winked at Rio Ferdinand as he was leaving the pitch.

Pushing and shoving followed and it got heated as we entered the tunnel, with stewards and security guards getting in the way, but it wasn't anything untoward. When we got back into our dressing room, we had a sense that we had cleared an important hurdle and shown we would not be bullied.

It does wonders for a squad's chemistry when you come through an episode like that and it's why I said I missed it: when you step out of that competitive environment, nothing can replicate it and I'd have loved to have been in the thick of things in Madrid.

This City squad will have felt ten feet tall when the dust settled and the emotions subsided. You can see that they are all in it together, from Oleksandr Zinchenko dashing to help Foden and John Stones standing tall in the face of provocation.

When you see City, everyone thinks it all comes easy for them, winning matches by playing great football, but this was them showing maturity and character and not flinching when they were confronted by opponents who wanted to take them beyond their limits.

So while plenty of people have been in a hurry to round on Simeone and Atletico, I've had no issue in looking at things from a different angle. 

They tried to set a trap, they tried to unnerve City but they did not anticipate opponents showing the same level of fight. Oh to have been a part of it.

MICAH'S MOAN OF THE WEEK

Decisions in football never cease to amaze and I know I was not alone in feeling flabbergasted by Sean Dyche's sacking.

Dyche oversaw one of the great managerial jobs in Premier League history and it is doubtful whether Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp would have got better results than the man who took Burnley into Europe and made it seem as if that was something normal.

We can only assume that something has happened behind the scenes to which we are not privy but I just don't understand what the thinking is, getting rid of Dyche with eight games to go. If Burnley go down, there is no guarantee they will come back up anytime soon.

Burnley's loss at Norwich last week was a big setback but let's not forget that Dyche had his best forward, Chris Wood, sold in January against his wishes. They could have been out of the picture long ago but Dyche kept them in there fighting.

To sack him with eight games to go is a staggering decision. More than anything, it is a sad, sad way for what has been a brilliant story to end.

Pat delivering on his promise

I wrote on this page last October that Patrick Vieira could one day become a candidate to succeed Pep Guardiola and my belief that he could do something really positive at Crystal Palace has never wavered.

Palace have good players, Vieira has a philosophy that is easy to buy into and a presence to back it up. 

When you mix all that together, it means good results should follow. Chelsea will certainly not underestimate the challenge that is coming their way. 

Modric pass was among best ever 

The thing you always noticed when coming up against Luka Modric was that he always, always had time on the ball. No matter how chaotic the game, Modric had the ability to play at his tempo and pick the pass he wanted. Xabi Alonso also struck me as having the same quality.

What I saw from Modric on Tuesday, though, was one of the greatest passes I have ever seen. To try and break it down, he had to concentrate on getting the ball under control, look for another white shirt, work out how powerfully he needed to make his own pass and then find the accuracy.

It will have taken you a couple of seconds to read that paragraph. Modric had to compute all that in the blink of an eye. He still managed to do it. Modric had critics in Spain when he initially went to Madrid but he stuck to his principles and values. What a magnificent footballer he is.