Scouting Potential Atletico Madrid Summer Transfer Target Aymen Abdennour

Atletico Madrid have already been extremely busy in this summer's transfer window, snapping up Jackson Martinez, Luciano Vietto and Yannick Carrasco to significantly bolster the club's attack. Now, manager Diego Simeone is turning his attention to his side's defence. 

According to AS, Simeone and Atletico have identified Monaco's Aymen Abdennour, Fiorentina's Stefan Savic and Stuttgart's Antonio Rudiger as three possible options to reinforce the club's defensive depth, following the sales of Miranda and Toby Alderweireld to Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. 

So who's the better fit for Los Colchoneros?

Given Atleti now only possess one experienced centre-back in Diego Godin, who's currently partnered by the 20-year-old Jose Gimenez, the club needs to recruit an established defender rather than a long-term project. Additionally, Atleti's defence has been defined by its strength and physicality, lending itself to aggressive and combative centre-backs who impose themselves on opposition forwards. 

As such, Abdennour, 25 and strongly built, has the edge over the less powerful Savic and the younger Rudiger, and he would represent a logical signing for Atletico Madrid. 

Below, we take a close look at what the defender would bring to the Vicente Calderon. 

Statistical Overview

	Ligue 1	Champions League
Appearances	18	6
Goals	0	1
Yellow/Red	2/1	0/0
Passing Success Rate	84.5%	77.8%
Aerials Won per Game	2.4	1.8
Tackles per Game	1.3	2.2
Clearances per Game	5.8	5.8
Blocks per Game	0.5	0.3
Interceptions per Game	2.2	3.0

Playing Style 

If you were to compare Abdennour's playing style to some well-known centre-backs in La Liga, you might say he's similar to Sergio Ramos and Nicolas Otamendi. That, of course, is not to argue the Tunisian is on the same level as those stars—he's not—but he does look to utilise a similar approach to the Spaniard and Argentinian. 

Indeed, the 25-year-old is a powerful and aggressive defender with a front-foot mentality. Not one to sit back and play conservatively, the Monaco man looks to be proactive and break up opposition attacks by stepping up to meet the play and making strong, robust challenges.

Strong in the air, fierce in one-on-one battles and quicker across the ground than your average central defender, Abdennour was an important cog in Leonardo Jardim's extremely tight Monaco outfit in 2014-15 and enjoyed some of his better performances in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen, Zenit St. Petersburg, Arsenal and Juventus.

Abdennour also possesses a surprisingly crisp left foot and can be effective in starting attacking moves from the back. In that regard, he's far superior to the now-departed Miranda, whose distribution from defence was often shaky and wayward. 

Because of that strong left foot, the former Toulouse defender can also provide cover as a makeshift left-back, which will be very appealing to Simeone given Atletico's difficulties at that position throughout last season following the departure of Filipe Luis and the arrival of Guilherme Siqueira.

But as is often the case with aggressive centre-backs, Abdennour and his bold approach can leave him susceptible to moments of questionable positional discipline, sometimes forcing him to use his excellent recovery skills to track down forwards who've gotten in behind.

Simeone may feel, however, that Abdennour would complement the rock-solid Godin nicely, giving Atleti a centre-back pairing of suitable contrast. 

Why the Small Number of League Appearances?

Eighteen appearances in Monaco's 38 league games certainly isn't a great amount, but Abdennour's 2014-15 season had numerous interruptions. 

In September, he suffered an hamstring injury on international duty with Tunisia, which, kept him out for a month. He suffered a repeat of the injury in May. 

Additionally, Abdennour was on duty with Tunisia at the Africa Cup of Nations during January. 

Are There Any Concerns?

When AS first broke the news that Atletico Madrid were interested in Abdennour, there were concerns the Tunisian's signing would be problematic because he would take Atleti past UEFA's quota for non-EU players, given the club already has Martinez, Gimenez and Angel Correa. 

Now, however, AS is reporting no-such complications exist and that Abdennour is definitely Simeone's preferred option over Savic and Rudiger. According to the European Commission, Tunisia is a partner country within the European Neighbourhood Policy for the period 2014-2020, possibly helping facilitate the potential of a deal for Atleti.