Grading Atletico Madrid's Major Summer Signings on Their Seasons so Far

It has been an up-and-down season for Atletico Madrid, who have been excellent at times but have struggled at others.

Currently nine points behind city rivals Real Madrid in the league table, Diego Simeone's men have blown hot and cold as they've sought to implement a different style to the one we have been used to seeing from Atletico teams down the years.

Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

They've been more expansive and better to watch, and while that has led to some excellent results such as their run of eight wins out of nine matches—drawing the other at Barcelona—it has also seen them lose to Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Real Madrid without scoring a goal.

And obviously key to this new approach has been the additions that Simeone made in the summer.

There were a large number of deals going in and out of the club as the Argentinian sculpted his side for 2016/17 but only three major ones—or four if you want to count the signing of Fernando Torres on a permanent deal.

The Spaniard was already an Atletico man in more ways than one, though, so what about the three other additions?

Here's how they've got on so far.

Sime Vrsaljko

fotopress/Getty Images

It perhaps says everything you need to know about the impact made by Sime Vrsaljko that he has played more matches for his country than his club this season.

The 24-year-old right-back has turned out five times for Croatia in World Cup qualifiers and a friendly, compared to just three appearances for Atletico since his summer move from Sassuolo. Two of those games for Atleti came in the Champions League and only one in La Liga—the 5-0 win over Sporting Gijon in September.

The reason for that can be determined in one word: Juanfran.

The Spanish right-back seems to have been on a personal mission to make up for his heartbreak at the end of the Champions League final last season, and if he was supposed to start showing signs of slowing down at the age of 31, then that hasn't materialised.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

In contrast to Vrsaljko, he has featured 16 times for Atletico this season and no times for Spain, as Simeone has stuck with his tried-and-tested right-back for the vast majority of the challenges his side has faced.

That has meant that the Croatian has had to be incredibly patient, even if Atletico have won all of the three matches he featured in.

His education in Italian football at Sassuolo makes him an almost-perfect defender for Simeone to mould, and the one good thing about his lack of game time must be that he will be fresh and firing in training sessions, where he simply has to be learning from Juanfran's game if he's got anything about him.

He really has no excuse not to, and maybe we'll be seeing more of him in the new year as the matches become more vital and Juanfran perhaps needs more of a rest.

All of that means it is pretty difficult to give Vrsaljko any sort of grade for his efforts. It'll have to be an average one, even if the chances to earn a higher mark have been limited.

Grade: D

Nicolas Gaitan

Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images

The change in emphasis and alteration in the way Atletico play was supposed to be the making of Nicolas Gaitan. The Argentina international joined the club in the summer from Benfica having been a driving—and goalscoring—force in their impressive 2015/16 Champions League campaign.

But with others in the squad impressing a lot more than the 28-year-old, he has almost been forced to resemble a bolted-on option in Simeone's plans; not quite the go-to guy plenty had thought he could have been this season.

The rapid development of Yannick Carrasco—surely Atletico's best player this season and hugely improved from his first campaign at the club—has almost forced Gaitan to the side. He can't help but feel a little envious as he wouldn't have envisaged the Belgian becoming quite so important and quite so talented.

PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/Getty Images

Gaitan has still featured, though. He's played nine times for the club in all competitions, even if only four of those were from the start. His most recent appearance came against Malaga a month ago, but that was cut short in the first half through injury. He hasn't played since.

Highlights include decent 90-minute showings in the home league wins over Sporting Gijon and Deportivo La Coruna, as well as his only two goals for the club to date when he came off the bench to net twice in the 7-1 hammering of Granada—including the first one within seconds of coming on.

But Gaitan was signed to make a difference and to be that extra element of creation and ideas which Atletico had been missing. They wanted him to get his foot on the ball and make things happen, but so far he's not really been providing that.

He must do better.

Grade: D

Kevin Gameiro

Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

Atletico's big summer signing was never about selling shirts or promoting the club's brand at home or overseas, simply because Kevin Gameiro's isn't a name that sells those shirts.

The Frenchman is all about scoring goals, and after managing 68 in three seasons at Sevilla, the hope was that he'd transfer those strikes to Atletico. However, other than in fits and starts, it hasn't quite happened for him just yet.

He's still scored semi-regularly, including two in Atleti's last two games—the 2-0 win over PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League and the 3-0 Liga success at Osasuna.

But the hope that he'd instantly form an impressive and deadly all-French partnership with Antoine Griezmann hasn't quite materialised, with Simeone all too willing to leave him out of matches if he thinks it is to the benefit of the team, with Torres still around and able to make an impact.

fotopress/Getty Images

Gameiro's game is about scoring goals, and when he's not doing that, it can be difficult to see what he's offering.

He's managed seven strikes across the campaign so far, and that is nothing to be sniffed at, but he's perhaps suffering from the lack of a "big" goal—a matchwinner or a strike that gets the Atletico fans really excited.

He thought he'd have got that on his debut against Alaves on the opening day of the season, only for the visitors to cancel out his stoppage-time penalty right at the last.

Gameiro is still working hard and giving his all for the side, but it just isn't quite rolling for him and Atletico in the way that they had hoped it would.

You get the feeling that once the team's form improves and gets more consistent, then so will his. For now though, it's just not quite right.

Grade: C