3 Atletico Madrid Stars Who Must Improve After International Break

All things considered, Atletico Madrid have not had a bad season so far. They are third in the table on 23 points. That's one behind Real Madrid and four behind Barcelona after 11 games.

However, Diego Simeone won't be entirely pleased with his entire squad, even if in press conferences he tries to be positive and project that he has belief in his men.

Some players need to pull their weight, and others need to start showing why they were brought to the Vicente Calderon.

Here are three who must buck up their ideas after the international break.

3. Oliver Torres

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Midfielder Oliver Torres started the season in Diego Simeone's good books, featuring often for a 21-year-old. However, lately he seems to have fallen out of favour and has mainly been used as a substitute.

The last game he started was the Madrid derby on Oct. 4, in which he was hauled off as Atletico looked for a way back into the game against their bitter rivals.

In the last three games, he has played 12, eight and 21 minutes, against Sporting Gijon, FC Astana and Valencia respectively.

Partly Simeone wants to protect him, but the rise of Yannick Ferreira Carrasco is also keeping him out of the side.

Oliver needs to show Simeone he merits more minutes and more substantial chances in the team—that he is worth playing alongside Carrasco.

He needs to be good enough to convince the coach that playing two attack-minded midfielders is worth changing his tactics for, which is at least something he did as a substitute against Astana when he scored a fine goal.

The youngster is by no means one of the worst three Atletico players this season, but he is someone who has a lot of potential, and it would benefit him greatly to work as hard as he can after the international break.

2. Koke

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Atletico Madrid's midfield talisman, Koke, has been well below par this season.

Crucial in the title-winning season of 2013-14, he was an impressive force last season too, even if he didn't kick on from the year before.

So far in the 2015-16 campaign, Koke has struggled. According to Sport, he is a Barcelona transfer target, but that was before his recent patch of form.

He suffered a hamstring injury in September and missed the Madrid derby. However, since his return to the team in October, he has improved.

The player looked decent in the wins over Real Sociedad and Valencia but played notably poorly in the recent 1-0 win over Sporting Gijon.

He said he feels fitter than ever, stating, per Sport: "I'm fine. I feel in better shape even than at the beginning of the season. I'm slowly getting the rhythm back, fitting back into the team, which is important. I feel good on the pitch and hopefully I can keep improving."

Atletico will be hoping he will be ready to return to his best form after he comes back from international duty with Spain.

1. Jackson Martinez

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Atletico's biggest disappointment this season is that new signing Jackson Martinez has not been able to fit straight in.

At €35 million, they wanted a lot from the Colombian, although allowing him a few months to adapt to the Spanish league from Portugal is reasonable.

His form has been hit-and-miss so far, with a couple of good games and a few bad ones too.

After netting against Astana and Valencia toward the end of October, it looked like he was settling down, but subsequent games against Deportivo La Coruna and Sporting Gijon have seen him turn in poor displays.

That said, he is still faring better than the other natural centre-forward in the squad, Fernando Torres.

Torres is a legend at the club, however, and Jackson is the big bet for this season and needs to play a lot better to justify his purchase.

For now, Antoine Griezmann keeps coming up with the goods, but Jackson will be expected to bear some of that burden sooner rather than later.