Areas Where Atletico Madrid Are Actually Better Than Last Season

Atletico Madrid find themselves in third place in La Liga at the international break, with 23 points from 11 games leaving them just four points off top spot and on a five-match unbeaten streak domestically.

That's exactly the same position, of course, as they finished last season in, but it certainly doesn't point to Atleti having stood still since the summer. A tougher fixture list than their top-four rivals have had to contend with in the opening weeks and the integration of new faces have been just two of the challenges for the team to overcome.

While both of those factors can be seen as short-term negatives, they can also be the opposite over the course of a whole season.

With that in mind, we can take a look now at where Atleti have already shown themselves to be better in 2015-16 than they managed to display last term.

Squad Depth

First, and perhaps most importantly, the size and quality of the all-round squad available to Diego Simeone is vastly improved on last season.

The manager, essentially, used a squad of 14 players in La Liga last term, rotating a key XI and bringing in Raul Garcia, Jose Gimenez and, in the second half of the season, Fernando Torres to change games and rotate individuals. Of course, there were a collection who played the odd game and substitution minutes, but it was very much a core team with support cast.

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This season is already visibly different: Torres and Jackson Martinez splitting attack duties, Oliver Torres and Yannick Carrasco battling for a wide berth and the likes of Saul and Angel Correa trying to break in.

We can expect to see Luciano Vietto get increased game time as the season goes on, the midfield addition of Matias Kranevitter to shake things up in January and, perhaps, Stefan Savic to feature more, too—though he has real work to do for that to happen.

It's a bigger squad to choose from and that should benefit Atleti immensely over the course of a season.

Pace and Variation in Attack

It's not just the size of the squad which is different, but the different solutions that the individuals within offer Simeone for solving problems within each game and against varying opponents.

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Last term, the attack was the pace and clinical finishing of Antoine Griezmann playing alongside a more powerful, but static, Mario Mandzukic. Fernando Torres added work rate but not really any greater physical or technical traits. Out wide, it was industry, close control and fantastic passing from both sides: Koke and Arda Turan.

The Turk has gone and in his place are the aforementioned options: Carrasco, with blinding pace, great dribbling and an eye for goal from the edge of the box, and Oliver, wonderful at finding space between the lines, a good first touch and clever with passes into the area.

Correa is the X-factor, playing wide or high and getting between the lines, taking on a defender or simply barging his way through to get an improbable shot away.

Not all options work every time, partly because these are all still very young players, but the choice is still there for the manager to make—and make again—during the game with his substitutions.

Results vs. Rivals

There's a smaller sample size here so far as we're only 11 games into the Liga season, but Atletico Madrid have just about surpassed their efforts against the league's major sides from last year.

It's marginal to date, but the improvement is apparent in performances as well as actual results: Atleti were excellent against Sevilla, while Valencia was their best display of the season.

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Consider last season's top eight: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico, Valencia, Sevilla, Villarreal, Athletic Club and Celta Vigo. Those are likely to be the top eight again this term—certainly the most capable by far on the evidence in the first three months—and Atleti's tough fixture list has already seen them face five of the seven.

Last term, Atleti garnered four wins from those games, 19 points from the 14 games overall, equating to 1.36 points per game. This season, it's 1.4 points per game, a marginal increase as noted, but they still have Athletic and Celta—the lower two from last season—to play.

A win from just one of those games will keep the points-per-game return above last season's level at the halfway mark; anything better and the difference begins to be incremental.

Of course, while Atletico are taking points in those games, their rivals are not—and in the chase for continual growth and challenging for La Liga title, it's a double bonus for Simeone's team to have that as one of their areas of improvement this term.

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