Breaking Down What New Signing Luciano Vietto Will Bring to Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid were always going to be one of the teams to watch in La Liga, being seen as one of perhaps only two sides who could realistically hope to continue challenging Barcelona and Real Madrid at the summit of Spain's top flight.

Their transfer activity this summer, however, lends even more credence to that train of thought, as they have spent big and acted early to bring in impressive recruits including Jackson Martinez, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco and Luciano Vietto to bolster the attack.

For watchers of La Liga last term, Vietto will be an intriguing and exciting addition to Los Colchoneros, and many will be wondering whether Diego Simeone can have the same sort of impact on the young Argentinian that he has had on Antoine Griezmann, nurturing and growing the player to improve his all-round game while also making him a hugely effective part of the team.

Movement, Attacking Style

Vietto isn't tremendously strong, isn't lightning quick and doesn't have bags of experience at just 21, yet last season in La Liga showed that he has plenty of quality on the ball, is intelligent and certainly has confidence. All of that combined made him a standout when Villarreal were having a fantastic early-season run of form.

Atletico's new signing is extremely adept at dropping out of the front line to take possession, feed the ball wide and then look to rejoin the move late on, arriving into the penalty area timed to sweep home low crosses or cutbacks. Of course, in approaching his attacks like this, he benefits enormously from having another striker alongside him; Villarreal played with a two-man front line throughout the season, whether it was Gerard Moreno, Ikechukwu Uche or Giovani dos Santos alongside Vietto.

Kerstin Joensson/Associated Press

Vietto passes and shoots with both feet, has a fine first touch and, despite not having a huge top speed, shows good acceleration and can shift the ball very quickly to take on a defender in proximity.

He's a forward who fits neither a playmaker role nor an out-and-out striker pigeonhole, utilising a combination of intelligent use of space, work rate and fast, instinctive finishing to make himself an important player.

Minutes, Rotations, Torres

Looking at the Atletico options in attack, it's clear there could be some outgoing business yet to occur at the Vicente Calderon: The full striking lineup now consists of Vietto, Martinez, Griezmann, Fernando Torres, Raul Jimenez and Angel Correa.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

As to who gets to feature the most, that first quartet will doubtless be the ones who stick around, with Jimenez surely both too old for a prospect and too far away from a starter to be considered for much meaningful action.

Vietto won't be expecting to be a guaranteed weekly starter, but Diego Simeone has shown he will stick with one player in possession of the shirt if the performances they are putting in are worthy of his team-first mentality—and, of course, are yielding results.

"

Vietto remembering what it’s like to train under Simeone. His first session as an Atleti player... pic.twitter.com/ZWQH75dB4r

— David Cartlidge (@davidjaca) July 10, 2015"

In terms of style, it is perhaps comparable to say Fernando Torres (the current iteration, not the powerful, fast, deadly 2008 version or the plodding, bemused 2012 shambles) is the man Vietto is most like; plenty of good work goes on outside the box, but joining the attack from the second line is an imperative part of his game—and perhaps he should score a few more, too.

It might be that those two in particular fight each other for game time depending on opposition, fitness and form.

Not the Finished Article

As good as Vietto was at times last season with Villarreal, as expensive as his fee for Atletico to fork out was and as hyped as the Argentinian was at times last season, it is incumbent to note that he is not the complete striker he can be.

Far from it, in fact.

Still only 21, almost half of Vietto's appearances for Villarreal last season in La Liga came as substitute; even for a team fighting for sixth, he was not an absolute fail-safe member of the starting XI. Part of that was rotation and Marcelino's choice to place cup success ahead of league consistency—in the end they got neither—but partly it was also because he is still young, still making mistakes and still simply not always the best fit. There were many games when team-mate Moreno, less heralded but a similar forward, was far better.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

What we'll expect to see from Vietto overall this season is a natural progression of his game and his talent, quite possibly as the first substitute option at times for Simeone and certainly getting upwards of 2,000 minutes over the entire course of the campaign, in all competitions.

If he does that, he's capable of reaching double figures in goals without too much effort.

Do that and he'll be a natural and gradual addition to the regular XI within a season or two and, combined with the pace, predatory nature and similar age range of Griezmann, together they may well be a pairing who fire Atletico Madrid to even greater success over the next few years.

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