Setting out Diego Simeone's Best Atletico Madrid Midfield Setup for Rest Season

When Atletico Madrid won last season's La Liga title and reached the Champions League final, they naturally earned many plaudits.

Most of these rave reviews focused on the scoring power of Diego Costa, the defensive organisation or the goalkeeping ability of Thibaut Courtois.

There was, of course, much fanfare around the likes of Arda Turan and Koke, but overall the midfield was the most underrated aspect of the team.

With the club forced to make a number of sales, it's the one area of the squad that's arguably stronger than last term.

Then Diego Simeone predominately used a 4-4-2 formation, as the team looked to counter-attack at speed.

This season the Argentinian has been a little more flexible, as they aim to be more proactive with the ball and change the style to a greater control of each match.

Another reason is that they have struggled to find a natural partner for Mario Mandzukic, with Raul Garcia often forced to operate as a second forward.

The signing of Angel Correa may solve that dilemma, although the young Argentinian is likely to operate as more of a mobile replacement rather than an alias to the Croatian.

This means that Simeone's probably best served by deploying a five-man midfield of two separate lines.

In the double pivot, Tiago and Gabi provide added defensive resilience for the back four, while also contributing directly to this season's goal tally.

Tiago left the club when his contract expired in the summer but re-joined after a move to his old side Chelsea failed to materialise.

The Portuguese midfielder has even returned to the international setup due to his impressive performances this term.

He has scored three goals including the equaliser in the Madrid derby and the opener against Espanyol, which is his best total since the 2010/11 campaign.

Captain Gabi has helped the team score goals with his fantastic delivery and range of passing.

The midfielder is a superb free-kick taker and is one of the main reasons that Atleti score such a large amount of goals from these situations.

He makes more tackles than any of his team-mates and only Koke offers more key passes, via WhoScored.com.

Gabi was sacrificed in successive matches against Real Madrid and Olympiakos earlier in the season but has recently completed 90 minutes in four out of his last five matches.

The former Real Zaragoza player has been implicated in the match-fixing scandal, although he denies any wrongdoing and says he was just following orders from the club hierarchy, per Goal.com.

The attacking triumvirate should feature a combination of mobility, work-rate, creativity and directness.

On the right, Arda Turan has overcome his early-season injury problems to become a regular in La Liga.

The Turkish international has the highest pass completion rate of any Atletico player who has featured in more than 200 minutes and makes 1.5 dribbles per game, via WhoScored.

On the left, Antoine Griezmann deserves a run of matches after his hat-trick turned around the game with Athletic Club.

The former Real Sociedad winger has surprisingly taken a while to adapt to his new surroundings, although that may have something to do with the stylistic adjustments made by Simeone.

His strike rate has been exceptional with eight goals in 11 starts across league and European action, via WhoScored.

In the No. 10 role, Koke has all the necessary attributes to cause mayhem for opposition defences.

The 22-year-old has been mainly used on the left of midfield, but he has excelled on the occasions that he has taken up a central position.

He has made the highest amount of assists in La Liga with eight, alongside Villarreal's Denis Cheryshev and Cristiano Ronaldo, per Whoscored.