Atletico Madrid face the opening of their La Liga season on August 19 with a striker situation that grows more precarious by the week. Julian Alvarez wants out, Alexander Sorloth is unlikely to stay, and Antoine Griezmann has already left for Orlando City – leaving Diego Simeone with a front line that could soon be looking rather thin before a ball is kicked competitively.
The Scale of the Problem
The numbers make uncomfortable reading. , a 93-goal hole from the last two seasons will be left gaping at the top of the team. Losing both – and Griezmann before them – leaves a hole that no amount of tactical flexibility will paper over.
Alvarez has made his desire to leave unambiguous, and the saga has now dragged into a territory where every week spent without resolution is a week Atletico cannot use to identify, negotiate, and register a replacement. The primary source is careful to note he may not be heading to Barcelona or Real Madrid, but the direction of travel is clear enough: La Araña is going somewhere, and the club needs to respond accordingly.
Sorloth’s exit has its own moving parts. Clubs in Italy are said to be interested, and there is talk of him being used as a lever to secure Nico Gonzalez’s permanent transfer from Juventus – the kind of multi-club choreography that adds further uncertainty to Atletico’s planning. Besiktas have also been mentioned, which would represent a reunion with Turkish football after his breakthrough spell at Trabzonspor. For all the debate inside the fanbase about whether Sorloth is good enough, the club will still feel his absence if both he and Alvarez are gone by late August.
Internal Options Are Not the Answer
Simeone has been trialling Ademola Lookman as a second striker occasionally toward the back end of last campaign, and the Nigerian forward did take on that role occasionally toward the end of last season. The logic is understandable – Lookman is decisive in tight spaces and has a legitimate goal threat – but the leap from supporting act to carrying 25-goal responsibility is a substantial one. Cores is sceptical, and the scepticism is grounded: Lookman is an outstanding wide attacker, not a natural focal point for a Simeone team that has always been built around a dominant central finisher.
Fernando Torres’ Atletico Madrileño produced the third tier’s top scorer last season in Arnau Ortiz, who bagged 23 league goals. Miguel Cubo has been used at centre-forward in preseason sessions. Neither represents a credible La Liga solution at this stage; the gap between the third division and the top flight is brutal, and Simeone’s history with youth promotion from August is limited. These are options born of necessity, not conviction.
The Market Options Carry Their Own Risks
That leaves the transfer market, and the options available are uninspiring at best. Dusan Vlahovic is unattached after his departure from Juventus and – theoretically the kind of low-cost solution that suits a club under salary-cap pressure. The Serbian is still only 26, speaks the Italian in which Simeone naturally communicates, and was the player Atletico wanted when he was setting Serie A alight at Fiorentina. The problem is that he is not that player anymore. His output at Juventus declined steadily, and signing him now would be a bet on recapturing form he may have lost for good.
Viktor Gyokeres has also been mentioned in connection with Atletico, with some reporting framing his potential arrival as the mechanism that would allow an Alvarez sale – . The Swedish forward at Sporting CP has demonstrated he can score at volume in Portugal, but the concerns around his temperament and consistency under pressure at the highest level are legitimate. Cores puts it plainly: after years of watching Sorloth and Alvaro Morata go cold at crucial moments, Los Colchoneros cannot afford another forward who loses confidence at the wrong time.
The contingency planning around alternative striker targets reflects how far the club is from a settled solution. Atletico have been linked with multiple options as they try to find someone who fits both the sporting profile and the financial constraints Mateu Alemany is working within.
A Club That Needs Someone to Take Charge
What makes this situation particularly concerning is not just the absence of a striker – it is the absence of clarity about who is driving the decision-making. Cores identifies the problem with precision: Simeone has spent much of the summer in New York; Miguel Angel Gil Marin has been giving protagonist interviews; Cerezo continues to make public statements that generate heat without light; and Alemany, nominally the sporting director tasked with fixing this kind of problem, appears to be working, appears to be working without full authority or coordination.
The ongoing uncertainty around the Alvarez situation illustrates how the club’s internal dynamics are complicating what should be a more straightforward process. Every day the saga continues without resolution is a day less for Atletico to pursue alternatives at a price and wage level that makes sense under LaLiga’s financial rules.
, and outgoing deals have been slow to materialise, less time to solve the striker issue.
History Offers a Warning
Every Simeone team that has genuinely competed – for La Liga, for the Champions League – has been anchored by a striker who could win matches on his own: Falcao, Diego Costa, Griezmann, Luis Suarez. This is not a coincidence of personnel; it reflects how Simeone structures his entire system. The goals in those eras did not come from everywhere; they came predominantly from one source, with the rest of the team providing the platform.
Without that kind of forward in place before August 19, Atletico begin the season in a structurally weakened position. The friendlies against Manchester United, Manchester City, and Marseille will offer early evidence of how Simeone intends to cope. They will also, in all likelihood, to stop talking and start acting.
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