5 changes Atletico Madrid should effect for next season

#3 Become better in the transfer market

Atleti fans never got to see the best of Carrasco among other dud signings

Atleti has a well-established reputation as the world’s premier team when it comes to buying strikers as the club’s long record of replacing great strikers with others just as great/greater is unsurpassed by any other team in world football (Christian Vieri, Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink, Torres, Sergio Aguero, Diego Forlan, Costa etc).

However, keen eyes would have noted that quite a number of players bought in the last 6-7 years have been duds who have failed to fit into the very rigid set-up favoured by Simeone.

Alessio Cerci, Josuha Guilavogui, Luciano Vietto, Jackson Martinez, Nico Gaitán have all been expensive flops. Though in the case of Martinez, the club did make a profit.

This troubling failure does not end with established players as highly rated youngsters like Matías Kranevitter, Rafael Borre, Diogo Jota have also failed to make the grade at the club.

Much of this is down to Simeone’s failure to switch styles to allow these players flourish and this malaise even extends to young players who have shown their quality in flashes (Yannick Carrasco and Olivier Torres are two of the best examples) and have had to leave.

Simeone has been a godsend to the club since he arrived in 2011, but his refusal to evolve is beginning to hurt the team a la Jose Mourinho and he will need to get his act together if the team is to have a great campaign next season.