Outlining What Role Fernando Torres Will Play for Atletico Madrid in 2015-16

With Atletico Madrid one goal to the good after Raul Garcia dispatched a spot-kick, the Vicente Calderon rose as one for a substitution. After 59 minutes, Fernando Torres' "debut" was done, the Spaniard leaving to a standing ovation that even the Atleti players on the pitch contributed to.

As he exited, Torres clapped with the adoring crowd rejoicing in a 1-0 lead over Real Madrid, completing a full spin to thank all parts of the stadium and looking almost totally at home in his red-and-white No. 19 shirt.

Kings Day on January 6, the day when children in Spain receive their Christmas presents, was one day earlier. "There will be a fair few 'Torres 19' shirts among them," ESPN FC's Sid Lowe wrote beforehand.

But "Torres 19" doesn't have much of a ring to it. His old shirt, "Torres 9," does. He thinks so, too.

"Fernando Torres calls dibs on No. 9 shirt," ran Marca's headline in late June, Atleti's prodigal son wanting not only his old number back—the number also typically synonymous with a club's leading forward. The catch: He'll get the former but won't be the latter.

This summer, Atletico Madrid have already snapped up Jackson Martinez and Luciano Vietto.

That pair will join Antoine Griezmann and the now-ready Angel Correa, leaving Torres as one-fifth of a quintet Marca has dubbed "The Jackson Five." Martinez, it seems, has been anointed the leader. Griezmann is unquestionably next. 

So where does Torres fit in?

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Realistically, the club icon is in a three-way tussle with Vietto and Correa—a pair of talents who are 21 and 20 years old, respectively, and represent long-term projects for Atleti—for the third position in Diego Simeone's forward pecking order. Or he could be competing for the first-reserve spot—whichever way you want to look at it.

In Torres' favour is experience. In Vietto and Correa's are pace and youthful vitality, the former also coming to the banks of the Manzanares following an outstanding 18-goal season with Villarreal.

The veteran in that trio, of course, is hardly carrying the same recent form, having seen a blistering honeymoon period in the opening stages of his return peter out to something far less spectacular. The end result: six goals in 26 appearances in 2015 for the former Liverpool sensation.

Underwhelming? Probably. But there is reason to be cautiously optimistic ahead of 2015-16.

Indeed, the trends in the club's recent campaigns suggest Torres' goal tally became a victim of an outfit that feels the effects of its own grinding method as seasons draw to a close.

Like David Villa before him—the player he'd essentially returned to replace for Simeone—the Spaniard was trying to speed up in a side that was slowing down, as we explained here at Bleacher Report:

"

Up to the first week of February in the recently concluded season—a period culminating in the 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid—Atletico averaged 2.14 goals per game in league play. Thereafter, they averaged 1.25. Like they had the previous year, Atleti grew tired and flat as the campaign approached its end. The pattern was the same. Torres, like Villa, became a secondary option in a team that ran out of juice to score. The halting of his goal tally was almost unavoidable.

"

David Ramos/Getty Images

Next season, however, Atletico Madrid should possess more dynamism, a far more lethal edge. Martinez, strong and explosive, resembles the Diego Costa type far more than Mario Mandzukic ever did, while Vietto is very much in the Griezmann mould—fast, lightly framed, clever, a strong finisher.

Along with the "new stimulus" set to be introduced by Simeone, an initiative that will sharpen Atleti's ball movement, the newly available faces should actually benefit Torres, pushing the side to play faster and in more space—exactly the ingredients he needs.

Thus, playing time would appear to be the main issue.

Positively, Torres can look to Simeone's treatment of Griezmann last season for encouragement. The all-powerful Argentinian forced the precocious Frenchman to endure a period of tough love, insisting the former Real Sociedad star embrace the Atletico way before he would award the marquee signing a prominent role.

In 2015-16, Vietto and Correa can expect similar ordeals.

Torres, therefore, could viably begin the new campaign as the clear third option to rotate with Martinez and Griezmann in Simeone's 4-4-2. A hard-running, committed and savvy senior option.

It's not the role he craves, but it's also an opportunity—one surrounded by more favourable circumstances than what he encountered upon his return.

Settled once more at the Vicente Calderon, now familiar with his team-mates, accustomed to Simeone's ways and set to reap the benefits of an Atleti pre-season, Torres has both the tools and the environment he requires.

And if he's successful, if he can score effectively, he'll be doing so with his old No. 9 on his back—even if that's no longer who he is.