3 Atletico Madrid Players Who Are Fighting for Their Futures in 2015/16

Atletico Madrid's season started with a 1-0 win over Las Palmas on Saturday, with the extent of the depth and quality to Diego Simeone's new-look squad quickly becoming apparent.

New signings Filipe Luis and Jackson Martinez started the game, Luciano Vietto and Stefan Savic were on the bench and Oliver Torres, out on loan last year, had an excellent hour-long run out from the start. The increased competition for places means that Atleti have given themselves a big chance of fighting for major honours this year, but it also means some players are going to be left disappointed and uninvolved each match.

Over the course of the season as a whole, a number of them might be fighting to stay involved in Simeone's plans over the long term, including three senior members of the squad.

Gabi

Gabi is the captain of Atletico Madrid and one who has most benefited and improved during Simeone's tenure. He has lifted La Liga, the Europa League and the Copa del Rey as skipper—but last season his standards dropped fairly dramatically and there were far more games when the manager opted to replace him than had previously been the case.

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A combative midfielder who is technically adept and tactically excellent, Gabi has to return to those former levels of consistency and impact, both protecting the defence and setting away the attack from deep. If he does, Simeone has a perfect all-rounder for his double-pivot midfield to set the platform for the more offensive-minded parts of the side.

At full capacity, Koke-Gabi is an absolutely ideal pairing—but there's no doubt that Tiago is more of an undroppable player at this point than Gabi himself.

With Thomas in reserve, Matias Kranevitter on his way in January, per Football-Espana, Josuha Guilavogui returning next summer and Koke expected to feature far more centrally this season, Gabi has to treat every game as both an opportunity and a challenge: to cement his place as a guaranteed starter and to get back to his best form.

Miguel Angel Moya

It's not the case at most clubs that a second-choice goalkeeper would be fighting for his future, but increasingly amongst Europe's bigger sides there are two stoppers in place who are genuinely of a very good level—see Real Madrid's alterations of Diego Lopez, Iker Casillas and Keylor Navas in recent years, Barcelona with Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo and Chelsea last term with Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois.

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Atletico Madrid are in a similar position: Miguel Angel Moya established himself as the Liga goalkeeper of choice last term thanks to a terrific start to the season, while Jan Oblak was the domestic and European cup goalkeeper.

This term has seen Oblak take his place in goal in La Liga from the first fixture of 2015/16 and the suspicion is that the younger, extremely talented Slovenian will be there to stay.

Moya's opportunities will be limited initially to the Copa del Rey and perhaps staying involved to that level will be fine for him; having had a taste at the top though, if he wants to remain a first-choice keeper, then he needs to put in a big performance when given the chance or he'll likely have to move on.

Fernando Torres

The prodigal son returned in January last year, with Fernando Torres signing a one-and-a-half-year loan with Atleti from AC Milan.

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That loan expires at the end of the 2015/16 season and it's fair to say that it seems as though Torres will want to remain with the club thereafter. To do so, there are two things he needs to show: One, that he has something to offer the first team even with the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Jackson Martinez and Luciano Vietto at their disposal. As a supporting forward option, he should be able to do this without too much trouble—he looks fit and sharp and clearly involved mentally, but consistency will be key.

The second factor might prove to be a bit trickier: Somehow convey to Milan that he is worth selling permanently, despite putting in good-enough performances for Atleti to want him to stay.

The Italians have moved on without him, signing Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano this summer and being close to a deal for Mario Balotelli to return too, per BBC Sport, so there shouldn't be too much of an issue in Torres leaving next summer. But firstly and most importantly, he needs to make Atletico want him on a more permanent basis.

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