Seasonal Player Ratings: Barrios, G. Simeone head inconsistent midfield group

Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images

When looking for a metaphor to describe the Atlético Madrid midfield this season, you’d be hard pushed not to liken it to season 10 of “The Walking Dead”. All of the heroes are gone, or clinging onto their final moments, and the potential new heroes aren’t quite ready to step up to the plate just yet.

It was a season of immense change in the middle of the park for Atlético Madrid — from the start of the campaign with a midfield three to ending the season with a four, more reminiscent of the peak Cholismo

years with a wide midfielder drifting central.

This campaign has also been the first in which Atlético’s captain, Koke, has lost his undisputed starting role. The only man who has been constant throughout the entirety of Diego Simeone’s first decade in charge has shown signs of ageing for the very first time, though he can rest easy knowing that the likes of Giuliano Simeone and Pablo Barrios are snapping at his heels to break through and come into the team.

The more concerning point has been the second string, or the depth options within the squad. Conor Gallagher has arrived with mixed reviews, while wingers Rodrigo Riquelme and Samuel Lino both endured very disappointing campaigns, while the likes of Thomas Lemar and Javi Serrano were simply non-existent for the most part.

Here are Into the Calderón's seasonal player ratings for the team's midfielders as we dive deep into scoring each of the men who played a role in the middle of the park last season.

Giuliano Simeone

It’s hard to imagine a world where Carlos Bucero wanted to get rid of Giuliano Simeone and send him back on loan to Alavés for a second season running. From a singular appearance off the bench for a few minutes, passing through loans to Alavés and Real Zaragoza, even Giuliano’s biggest admirers would not have expected him to have quite such a powerful impact in his debut season, when he effectively became the team’s biggest threat in transition on the right flank.

Fifty appearances in total shows how firmly he stepped into the team after the season reached October and Giuliano had only started once, with cameo appearances off the bench in four other games. From there, however, he started 25 of 28 league matches, with his pressing, dribbling and pure speed allowing him to be a crucial outlet for a team lacking distribution options from the back. His 8.41 progressive passes received per 90 puts him among the top one percent for the stat in Europe’s top five leagues last season.

La revelación del @Atleti. ❤️ #LALIGAHighlights | @giulianosimeone pic.twitter.com/CNPiCnnS2c

— LALIGA (@LaLiga) July 16, 2025

Fourteen goal involvements this season alone shows his potential to impact play and generate opportunities. Building on that end product will prove key to exploiting the potential of Cholito, who is now only missing more goals in his game to add to the five that he scored in an already-impressive first campaign in the side.

Rating: 9

Rodrigo De Paul

On his day, Rodrigo De Paul is arguably the most talented individual in this Atlético Madrid squad. However, the 2024/25 season was proof yet again that “his day” doesn’t come as often as it should, with speculation surrounding his love life and his desire to reunite with Lionel Messi in Miami swirled toward the end of the campaign.

De Paul’s 10 assists were his most in a campaign since he joined Atlético. Beginning in Novembe, he embarked on his best run of form yet in an Atleti shirt, scoring three and recording four assists in two months. But after that his performances dropped, and the inconsistencies which have come to describe him returned. All of the fight in his game vanished from the moment Real Madrid knocked Atlético out of the Champions League on penalties. His performance against Barcelona only a couple of weeks later, where he failed to win a single duel, reflected as much.

Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images

De Paul is capable of bringing incredible offensive threat through his vision and passing, but too often with the pressure on, he let the team down through his own work rate and mentality. It would be harsh to score De Paul any lower, but I would be hard-pushed to justify praising him any further.

Rating: 6

Pablo Barrios

This was Pablo Barrios’ coming of age season. From 20 starts in 2023/24 to 40 in 2024/25, Barrios has gone from young prodigy to one of the first names on the team sheet for Cholo Simeone, displacing captain Koke from the line-up. His performances have justified that change in role; he ranked in the top 15 percent of all midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for interceptions and in the top 20 percent for attempted passes.

In particular, Barrios’ attacking output has improved significantly. “Koke always tells me to get forward, he’s always encouraging me to break and attack,” he said at the Club World Cup, after also reflecting in January on Simeone’s instructions to “think more about the goal and shooting options”. His number of shots per 90 is up by 0.14, and it’s paid off, with a crucial goal against Sevilla late in the season and a brace against Seattle Sounders in the United States making this his most prolific season to date.

❤️ TEMPORADÓN, @Pablo_Barrios7. #LALIGAHighlights | @Atleti pic.twitter.com/KAwqXJdZTs

— LALIGA (@LaLiga) July 4, 2025

Still, it hasn’t been a perfect season. Two early red cards, against Celta Vigo on seven minutes and Bayer Leverkusen on 23 minutes, made life tricky for Atleti in crucial fixtures, and were a timely reminder that despite his impressive control of games, he is still only 22 years old. Adding composure to match the quality that he has shown on the ball could be what takes his career to the next level.

Rating: 8.5

Koke

Not since 2011/12, when he was just 19, has Koke played a lower percentage of minutes for Atlético Madrid. Between injuries and losing his place in the gala XI, Koke played only 56 percent of all available minutes this season, dropping out as Barrios rose. A hamstring injury in February also saw him miss eight games, his longest ever injury-induced absence.

At 33, it’s to be expected that Koke’s role would diminish. However, when he’s been called upon, he’s played in his role well, bringing his stability to allow Barrios and De Paul to take more risks, and exercising his leadership skills to contribute to the rest of the squad even in just a handful of minutes.

Photo by Maria Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images

This was a change of era for Koke, and so in some respects, it’s logical that his season can be scored on the lower end. He’s lost the undisputed role of a starter, but he’s adapted to the change well, much better than some of his team-mates who might be sitting alongside him on the bench. His passing stats remain strong and his defensive contribution is solid, with a higher tackle success rate than ever before.

Rating: 6

Conor Gallagher

Conor Gallagher’s debut season at Atlético Madrid is possibly one of the hardest to score of any player. On a positive note, Gallagher has made a real effort to learn Spanish and integrate, replicating the success of Kieran Trippier only a few years ago in that sense, to adjust to life in Spain without some of the signs of struggle that we’ve seen British players encounter in LaLiga. He hit the ground running, with two goals in his first five games, but he struggled to maintain that same level of consistency throughout the campaign.

“El Pitbull” has been used as a more defensively-reliable option to drive a high press, though at times there seemed to be a place in the team for Gallagher purely based on his work rate and energy, rather than any of his technical abilities or skills. Twenty-two percent of his tackles this season came in the offensive third, much higher than his career average of 18 percent for the same stat.

The way Diego Simeone and his assistant coach celebrate Conor Gallagher's double slide tackle...

The beautiful game. pic.twitter.com/K1vYRU9pJV

— Sunday League Footy (@SundayChants) March 2, 2025

However, there is a real sense that Gallagher’s potential hasn’t yet been untapped. His shot creating actions per 90 in 2024/25 sat at 1.76, almost half of the 3.14 he recorded in his final season at Chelsea. Operating on the left of midfield has felt like a square peg in a round hole, similar in some respects to Saúl Ñíguez moving in on the left, but it does appear that Simeone is yet to figure out exactly what to do with Gallagher. Finding the answer to that could define how his Atlético career progresses, or ends.

Rating: 6

Thomas Lemar

After a year out of action, a grand total of 128 minutes doesn’t give us a lot to go on with Thomas Lemar. It was perhaps surprising that the club failed to find a new home for him last summer, when he did not travel with the first team on tour and instead captained a reserve team in pre-season which remained in Madrid. An injury setback early on delayed his return, but only 45 minutes played, mostly in the Copa del Rey against lower league opposition, by January was unlikely to attract any other suitors.

Photo by Maria Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images

Lemar is a good figure to have around the dressing room, and he is well-liked by Simeone and his staff, but he is clearly not at the level that Atlético Madrid need. Arguably his only memorable contribution to the season was failing to track back in the season-ending 2-1 defeat to Getafe.

Rating: 5

Javi Serrano

If expectations were low for Javi Serrano after a failed loan spell at Sturm Graz in Austria in 2023/24, he managed to disappoint again. No suitors were found to take him on loan again in 2024/25, meaning that he was left playing for Fernando Torres’ Atlético Madrid B team. He played 45 minutes against Vic in the Copa del Rey, as well as 45 minutes in the season’s low point: the 4-0 defeat to Benfica in October.

Photo By Javier Borrego/Europa Press via Getty Images

With no other contributions to consider, Serrano’s involvement was very limited, and at 22 he is now entering the final year of his contract, While a regular for Torres in the B team, he has not excelled at Primera RFEF level, either. Despite being included in the Club World Cup squad, it seems inevitable that we may already have seen the last of Serrano in an Atlético shirt.

Rating: 2

Rodrigo Riquelme

Expectations were fairly high for Rodrigo Riquelme after he showed his abilities and adapted well to the wing-back role in 2023/24. But this season was so poor that it led to his joining Real Betis early on in the summer transfer window, at a price which is half of what was being offered for his services 12 months prior.

The change in formation to a 4-4-2, ditching the wing-back roles, seemed to be one that could help Riquelme to play in a more natural position as a wide midfielder, but in reality saw him lose his place completely. Between November and March, Riquelme played only nine minutes of league action despite being fully fit and available, and played only 15 percent of all minutes across the season. Unable to add the defensive strength required of a wide midfielder in the Simeone system, with Gallagher and Lino’s work rates preferred on the left, his output in attack was insufficient to justify a place either; Riquelme contributed only one goal, against Elche in the Copa del Rey, and one assist all season.

Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Riquelme is now 25, no longer the rising star that he was, and his end product has diminished rather than improved. While his shots per 90 were the highest they’ve ever been at 2.44, his accuracy was just 29 percent, the lowest of any season of his career. He remains an effective attacker in build-up play and progression, but with no output at the end, it was no surprise to see him fall from favour.

Rating: 3

Samuel Lino

Lino enjoyed a breakthrough 2023/24 campaign, and Atlético fans across the globe were excited to see how he could continue to develop and become one of the most exciting wide players in the world.

A year later, he’s being linked with a move to the Premier League to make room for others. That’s possibly the best description of how Samuel Lino’s season has developed.

Where Lino was one of the few players to get fans off the edge of their seats, his lack of end product has grown frustrating. His inconsistent form, not helped by his total number of minutes dropping by some 15 percent compared to last season, made him somewhat of an unknown quantity, whether he could be the game-changing spark that was missing or a complete non-entity who would allow the game to pass him by.

Dear Samu Lino:

WE LOVE YOU pic.twitter.com/nBXyHsHQkI

— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) December 8, 2024

On paper, many of his statistics remain impressive. His shot accuracy has improved on last season and his progressive carries remain in the top 1 percent of Europe’s top five leagues. If Atlético do want to get rid of him this summer, there will likely be no shortage of suitors willing to take a gamble on a player whose biggest challenge has been consistency.

Rating: 4

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