My Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres is yet another star player that is going to miss the Euros in France.

The Atletico Madrid striker has not been selected in the team despite having been quite prolific since his return from injury. Indeed, the former Liverpool and Chelsea player has scored 7 goals in his last 11 games, and this has fueled rumors that he might be recalled to the Spain national team.

The Spaniard will remain at Atletico Madrid next season after helping the club achieve a level of success this season.

They placed third in the La Liga and are in the finals of the UEFA Champions League which will come up later this month against Real Madrid.

Fernando Torres says that Atletico Madrid believe that the club will be capable of winning the league title this season.

Leaders Barcelona had a huge lead going into the month of March.

Atletico Madrid’s coach Diego Simeone has confirmed that Fernando Torres will be starting in the Champions League match against Barcelona.

Fernando Torres played in the game against Real Betis in the weekend and even scored a goal in the match. He also assisted Antoine Griezmann in one of the goals before he was substituted.

Simeone has revealed that the reason he was substituted was because he wanted to prepare him for the game against Barcelona. Fernando Torres is currently in a rich vein of form having scored four goals in the last seven games for Atletico. He deservedly needs to be in the team to face Barcelona in the Champions League.

Fernando Torres’ struggles in front of goal has continued even into the 2015-16 season. It was expected that returning back to Atletico Madrid would help the Spaniard regain his form.

However, there appears to be a major problem within the 31-year-old since he has been unable to score anywhere near his best. A return of just two goals in almost 800 minutes of action sees the forwards struggled to get regular game time even under Diego Simeone, who is a manager rates him a lot. Playing for Atletico does help Torres get away with some of the criticism.

Atletico Madrid failed to win any major honour last season, but manager Diego Simeone says that his team are now well equipped to be challenging for a title at the end of this campaign.

The Spanish league will be beginning shortly and Atletico have made some important changes to the squad during the summer. Gone are names like Mario Mandzukic and in have come the likes of Jackson Martinez. This means that Fernando Torres is unlikely to be a first choice striker at the club in the coming campaign. The future of Torres at the Vicente Calderon looks to be under doubt.

The Spanish striker is on loan until the end of the season and only his good performances will persuade Atletico to convert this deal into a permanent move. Even though he is regarded as one of the club legends, Simeone will not want to waste significant portion of his wage budget on a player not regarded as a first choice. Last season, Atletico finished in the third spot which was very much expected. However, they had won the title – in unexpected circumstances – just the season before. Simeone is confident of reclaiming the lost league title from the clutches of Barcelona.

"We know [Luciano] Vietto, [Angel] Correa, [Yannick] Carrasco and Oliver [Torres] can greatly improve the team.We still have to improve a lot, especially from a tactical perspective, but the players will never lose their talent. This talent is necessary for winning games," said the manager. Atletico start the new campaign with a home game against Las Palmas. It will be interesting to see how the team would respond to the numerous changes made by Simeone. The league campaign for Atletico starts on August 22. This will be immediately followed by games against Sevilla and Barcelona in the subsequent weeks.

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone claims that the club will not forget the core values that they developed under him.

These values were immensely responsible for the club winning the league title a few years ago. However, there are several new faces at the club following the departure of names like Mario Mandzukic and Arda Turan. The latter, especially, was a key factor in the club’s success over the last couple of years. There has been an opinion that Atletico will struggle once they lose the values built up under Simeone. The manager, though, has pointed out to the presence of many older players in the team, who will help the new generation integrate seamlessly into the ethics.

The Spanish club has been one of the most active in the transfer window after bringing in players for more than € 120 million. Jackson Martinez has been one of the most high profile among them. Players like Koke and Torres remain from the squad that won the league title. Simeone’s plans of changing the style of play in order to reclaim the league title is likely to be viewed with scepticism for the first few weeks of the season. Despite the doubts, they have begun the campaign with two wins from the opening two games.

"Reading the squad list you can see some important names, a lot of young players like Vietto, Oliver [Torres], Carrasco or Koke, [Antoine] Griezmann although they're already regulars, but that's important. We want to do everything we can not to lose the essence of the team and be up for what each game asks of us.We've only really had half a pre-season because we were searching for players, the new signings are integrating into the side and are learning what we're looking for in the game,” said Simeone.

Torres was extremely keen on preventing Barcelona from clinching the league title at the Vicente Calderon.

This will be an exact opposite of the circumstances from last season when Atletico Madrid managed an unthinkable league success at the Camp Nou after a draw. This time around, a narrow 1-0 victory sealed the things for the Catalan club. They have once again managed to triumph in the Spanish league ahead of Real Madrid. Torres made his return to the Spanish league in January and has been a bit part player in the domestic competitions.

However, he played from the start against Barcelona hoping to continue his impressive record against the Catalan club. Even during his worst spells as a footballer, Torres has always scored against Barcelona. This did not turn out to be the case during the weekend, as a solitary goal was enough to seal the title. Lionel Messi scored the only goal of the game. Even though the Argentine did not break any records this weekend, he once again proved the big-name nature that he has always had. Torres has saluted the little superstar by saying that the amazing skills that he possesses proved to be the difference in the end.

Torres is not expected to sign on a permanent basis at Atletico Madrid anytime soon."Until we went 1-0 down, we felt they controlled the game but weren't threatening us.We still had chances from set pieces and gave some away, but they had Messi, who eventually changed everything in a second.They were comfortable, controlling the game, but didn't want to take risks because they knew they could wait until one player made the difference. Nonetheless, I think the approach of the two teams was very respectful and very even," said the striker. Torres has scored three goals in 12 appearances since his return.

Fernando Torres says that Real Madrid can be punished on the counter-attack and Atletico Madrid should be aware of this aspect when they travel to the Santiago Bernebeu for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

The first leg ended as a disappointing 0-0 draw at the Vicente Calderon, but it was positive news for Atletico. They can now score an away goal at the Santiago Bernebeu and it would force Real to search for two in reply. Even though the home team will be the favourites to progress, Atletico have had a stronghold against their much illustrious rivals this season.

The duo have played each other seven times already this campaign and Atletico have stayed unbeaten in all of these matches. This unbeaten tag was preserved even into 2015 due to goals from the likes of Fernando Torres, who returned to the club in the January transfer window. Ahead of the second leg, Torres says that Atletico can feel confident about the tie against Real Madrid. Real do have to keep one eye on the la Liga title while Atletico can fully prepare and focus on this Champions League match. This may prove decisive. Torres has not yet opened his account in the Champions League this season.

“Every game we play against them is a different story and I think this one will be because of the first leg result. It was strange as it was neither good nor bad for both sides. I hope this match goes the way we want it to and I’m expecting an offensive Real Madrid, yet they can’t go mad because 0-0 means they mustn’t concede. However, I think they will attack so we need to be ready to attack and defend. I feel more comfortable when we have a good defensive block and there is space I can run in to,” said Torres.

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone says that he is very happy with the impact made by Fernando Torres in this team. Despite the Spaniard being unable to open his account in the la Liga since his return to the Vicente Calderon, Simeone says that the overall impact needs to be judged more than by just the goal figures.

Torres has scored some important goals against Real Madrid and Barcelona, but they have come in the cup competitions. It looks like Atletico will fail in their efforts to retain the league title and it has raised questions about Torres’ contribution to the team.

Since the return of the 30-year-old, the future of number one striker Mario Mandzukic has been thrown into doubt. The former Bayern Munich man was dropped to the bench for the crucial match against Sevilla, which finished has a 1-1 draw. As a result of these two dropped points, Atletico have conceded defeat in the title race. The club will now be looking to cement their position in the top three of the table.

It would be sufficient to give them Champions League football for next season. After having recovered from their financial difficulties of the last decade, finances from the Champions League will be very crucial indeed.

"His entering [against Sevilla] boosted our counter-attacks and offensive connections. You could see that we could be dangerous in some counter-attacks. The introduction of Torres to the team makes me very happy. We need men of his characteristics and the enthusiasm with which he took the field. We need people who understand that no-one is more important than the team, no-one, not even the coach," said Simeone. Atletico Madrid have fallen seven points behind la Liga table leaders Real Madrid with both teams having played the same number of matches – 26.