Ultimate Guide to Atletico Madrid's 2016/17 Season
Third in La Liga. First with a Champions League final. Third. Then third with a Champions League final.
Diego Simeoneโs Atletico Madrid have become an increasing force in the collective consciousness of world football fans in the past four seasons, and as they prepare to go again ahead of the new campaign, theyโll be confident that this one offers plenty of opportunity.
Neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid look to have improved hugely over the summer, with the strongest starting XIs still broadly similar to last seasonโs when Atletico finished three points off Barca in La Liga and lost on penalties to Real in the Champions League final.
Atletico, meanwhile, have strengthened in a couple of areas, so is an improvement in the offing?
Hopes are certainly high for one, and it promises to be fascinating to see how they fare over the campaign.
Overview
This is, somewhat jarringly, the final season in which Atletico Madrid will play at their Estadio Vicente Calderon home, bringing to an end what will be 51 years of history before they move on to the Estadio La Peinetaโan old athletics stadium revamped to include more than 70,000 spectatorsโfor the 2017/18 season.
As weโve seen elsewhere recently, the leaving behind of an old stadium can evoke plenty of emotion, and you can be sure that Simeoneโone of the more emotional elite-level managers in the modern gameโwill be playing on that throughout the campaign.
The Calderon is sure to be rocking for several of Atleticoโs games throughout the season, and if the team can play up to that, creating the kind of atmosphere that we saw against Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League last season, then a dream ending for the old ground could be in store.
The New Arrivals
Croatian right-back Sime Vrsaljko has been added to the squad to provide competition for the long-serving Juanfranโwho might just have got over his misfortune in last seasonโs Champions League final by nowโand the new arrival will doubtless get ample game time given how liberal Simeone is with team changes.
The real excitement comes further forward, though, with attacking midfielder Nicolas Gaitan arriving from Benfica and forward Kevin Gameiro coming in from Sevilla, where he won the Europa League in each of his three seasons at the club.
Heโll hope he wonโt be going anywhere near that competition this time around, and there is a real sense that Gaitan and Gameiro will give Simeoneโs side a greater goal threat they have often lacked under his stewardship.
Goalkeeper
Fairly unheralded outside of Spanish football, perhaps because of his nationality, the 23-year-old Slovenian stopper Jan Oblak comes into this campaign having won the Ricardo Zamora trophy for Spainโs best top-flight goalkeeper in 2015/16, during which he conceded just 18 goals in 38 appearances at a rate of just 0.47 a game.
Nobody in the division had managed a record like that for 22 years, and Oblak bounces into the new season with the complete confidence of his manager, his defenders and his fans.
Defence
Vrsaljko adds to a fine array of defensive options for Simeone, whose first-choice back four is likely to feature Juanfran, the increasingly impressive Jose Gimenez, the stalwart Diego Godin and left-back Felipe Luis.
Uruguayan pair Gimenez and Godin have formed one of European footballโs best partnerships in recent years, and much will again rest on their combined efforts of intelligence and brute force in equal measure.
Stefan Savic did well whenever he was called upon as their deputy last season, whilst the young Frenchman Lucas Hernandez has signed a new deal following some standout performances, particularly in the Champions League.
Midfield
Getting goals from midfield is likely to be a key Simeone wish for the coming campaign, and it is to that end that Gaitan has been signed after he scored 11 times and helped Benfica to the Champions League quarter-finals last season.
As Atletico went two steps further, the emergence of Saul Niguez was clear for all to see, and both he and Koke are likely to be the beating heart of the midfield for most of the key matches, with the veterans Gabi and Tiago, as well as last Januaryโs signing Augusto Fernandez, all highly capable.
Yannick Ferreira Carrascoโs game came on leaps and bounds last season, which included a Champions League final goal, whilst Oliver Torres and Thomas Partey provide quality back-up and teenager Diogo Jota can now start his Atletico career in earnest after being signed in March.
Attack
Antoine Griezmann became a global superstar over the summer, but Atletico fans have known about his quality for some time now.
Euro 2016โs Golden Boot winner and best player might find heโs more of a marked man in the coming campaign, but it is also a season in which he can firmly establish himself as one of the modern football icons, with a place on the Ballon dโOr podium not out of the question.
Gameiroโs addition is likely to give him a more reliable partner, and it will be interesting to see how often Simeone pairs the two Frenchman together, as they could potentially cut loose if fielded in the more winnable matches.
Fernando Torres will serve as an able deputy and will get his fair share of games, whileโwith Luciano Vietto gone on loan to Sevillaโthe future of Angel Correa remains undecided.
The Manager
One of the most intense and passionate managers in the world game, Simeone can rightly claim that Atleticoโs success is down to his hard work, with the Argentinean rejecting overtures from elsewhere to stay in the Spanish capital.
At few other clubs in world football will you see this level of bond between fans and manager, and with Simeone seemingly not being able to do any wrong, he has complete trust as he seeks to oversee yet more historic success.
The Rivals
But for everything that Atletico look to achieve, their progress in La Liga and the Champions League really comes down to a zero sum game.
If Barcelona and/or Real Madrid click, then there really isnโt much that the Rojiblancos can do, as Spainโs big two will win the trophies that they are aiming for, but there has to be hope.
Neither of the Clasico rivals seems to have overly improved their starting XIs this summer, and given that Atletico were in touching distance of them for all of last season, and that they certainly have improved their team, then the possibility of surpassing one or both of them is a very real one.
The Aim
And that, really, has to be the aim for Simeone and his side.
In La Liga, despite challenges from the likes of Sevilla, Villarreal and Valencia, the lowest they are realistically going to finish is third place, but that has to be seen as a base camp from which to make an assault on the summit.
Two finals in three years in the Champions League has only whetted the appetite to go one better in that competition, whilst itโs fairly surprising that theyโve only won the Copa Del Rey once in the last 20 years.
After a couple of years of near misses, the sight of Atletico holding up a trophy is one that fans will be desperate to see.
But the question is, which trophy have they got the best chance of lifting?
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