Ranking and Grading Atletico Madrid's Summer Signings Halfway Through Season
A little over halfway through the season in La Liga and, after the closure of the transfer window in January, Spanish sides now know what squad they have to work with over the remainder of the campaign.
Importantly, though, they also know which summer signings have worked themselves into a position to contribute in the run-in.
Atletico Madrid only made one addition in the winter window, bringing in Augusto Fernandez to cover for the injured Tiago, but with the new signing also picking up an injury, it will be up to the established players and the summer buys to perform well enough to keep Atleti in the title hunt.
Here we consider the impact of the summer signings; ranked and graded on their displays for Los Rojiblancos so far.
Not Included
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A handful of summer signings are not included in our list:
Bernard Mensah—was loaned out to Getafe.
Matias Kranevitter—signed in summer, but only joined in January.
Santos Borre—is seeing out the season in Colombia on loan before joining Atletico next summer.
January addition Augusto Fernandez is also not included.
5. Jackson Martinez
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What can we say? Three successful years at FC Porto had many of Europe's biggest clubs after Jackson Martinez and Atletico Madrid paid €35 million to finally snare him in the summer.
And he has been terrible.
Showing no understanding with his attacking team-mates, lacking a first touch and having no impact inside the penalty box, Martinez lost his place through poor performance and then through injury. He hasn't managed anything of note since then.
Good moments were a stunning effort at Sevilla early in the season and an important strike in the win over Valencia, but three goals in total over 1,000 minutes for Atletico was simply nowhere near enough—and he has just been sold, at a profit (incredibly) to Guangzhou Evergrande in China, per Luis Aznar of Marca.
Grade: 2/10
4. Luciano Vietto
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Luciano Vietto hasn't hit the heights he managed with Villarreal, but that was to be expected.
For starters, he only really performed particularly well in the first half of last season and was very much in rotation for one of the forward slots.
A change in team, a step up in expectations and quality required and his age all combine to suggest this year would be a phase of getting to grips with a new career challenge, rather than one where he'd explode, and that has largely been the case.
That said, in the past month or so, Vietto has shown signs of improved understanding and better impact inside the penalty box.
Atletico need more goals from him (or someone) and he'll still face a challenge for game time even with Jackson Martinez gone, but three strikes in 965 minutes is marginally better than the Colombian and the 22-year-old has looked more integrated in the setup of late.
An average start and more is required, but there is hope.
Grade: 5/10
3. Stefan Savic
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Stefan Savic came in to replace Miranda and seemed an odd choice, but the Montenegrin centre-back has rarely put a foot wrong this season.
Of course that's in part due to not playing as many games as his positional rivals—1,100 minutes compared to 2,000 for Josema Gimenez and nearly 2,800 for Diego Godin—but he can only continue to play well and try to prove to Diego Simeone that he deserves more game time.
The 25-year-old will get the chance to feature next time out with Godin suspended, but it's usually Gimenez he comes in for, so the two younger defenders will have a chance to link up and compete alongside each other for once.
An impressive, if intermittent, debut campaign so far.
Grade: 6/10
2. Filipe Luis
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Even though Filipe Luis hasn't been as influential in the final third as he was in his first stint at the club, it'd be harsh not to give him a good grade overall as he has formed one quarter of the league's best defence.
The Brazilian has put in some excellent displays along the way—both early in the season and in recent weeks—but has also been rather terrible in possession, showing moments of poor judgement in other fixtures.
There seems to be little consistency in the mental side of his game, contributing in part to his lack of impact further forward.
That said, when he's good he tends to be very good, and is capable of linking play well down the channels as well as defending tenaciously.
Hopefully a little less tenaciously than he was on Lionel Messi's knee, though, which now sees him suspended for three games, per Sport.
Grade: 7/10
1. Yannick Carrasco
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Comfortably the most impressive of the summer signings is Belgian winger Yannick Carrasco, who has also been one of the most important offensive weapons Atletico have this season.
The 22-year-old started the campaign out of the team, but he won himself a spot and became one of La Liga's best attackers for a month or two.
Since then his form has fizzled and fluctuated, but—both off the bench and as a starter—Carrasco has been a regular under Simeone, changing the flow of the game and the team tactics with his pace and dribbling.
A little more consistency is obviously the aim, but there's no doubting his immense capacity to improve and deliver end product.
Carrasco has played just under 1,600 minutes, scoring three times, and there can be hope that he goes on to be one of the next Simeone regulars in the rest of this season and next, on account of his excellent technique and consistent performances just as much as his work rate and tactical versatility.
Grade: 8/10
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