I have to keep fighting the urge to write about the issue of who should play up front for Wrexham, because it absolutely fascinates me. It ticks so many interesting boxes: the choice between a successful combination and a superior individual; the question of whether statistics outweigh gut feeling; the knock-on effects that the decision has on formations and the make-up of the players in creative roles. But I can resist the temptation no more after reading that Atletico Madrid look like they’re re-signing Fernando Torres. That’s a whole can of Moult/York/Bishop-sized worms Diego Simeone is opening up!

The issue for Atletico is simple. They sold Diego Costa to Chelsea in the Summer and therefore lost the striker with that X-factor which transformed a superbly well-organised unit into a brilliant team capable of coming within a couple of minutes of a La Liga-Champions League double.

As a little amuse bouche, consider this: Costa’s fate over the last year encapsulates the importance of marrying a player’s qualities to the make-up of the team. His hard-running style is ideally-suited to a team like Atletico, who are willing to go direct to create pressure on their opponents, and he has been a perfect fit for Chelsea too. But that’s no surprise: it’s hard to a imagine two coaches more aware of the importance of the unit, and buying players primarily because they fit into it, than Jose Mourinho and Simeone. Simultaneous to Costa’s unstoppable club form, he has been parachuted into a Spain team which plays in a completely different manner – a side so far from relying on a focal point up front that they sometimes play with no striker at all – and looked the impotent opposite of the man club defences fear.

Meanwhile, Costa’s departure left a vacuum at the Vicente Calderon, and the club’s response was slightly surprising. In drafting in Mario Mandjukic as a direct replacement Atletico brought in a player with fundamentally different qualities. Admittedly he’s strong like Costa, so early service shouldn’t be an issue as he’ll hold the ball up equally well. But Costa’s mobility was the key attribute he brought to the Atletico mix and Mandjukic doesn’t have that.

Therefore, as a unit Atletico look to have lost something, there’s a diminution in fluency which hasn’t been so great as to make them a poor side, but has certainly made a difference in their ability to match a magnificent Real Madrid side in the race for the title. This is encapsulated in the two sides’ varying fortunes this season when considering them in macrocosm and microcosm. Atletico beat Real at the Bernabeu, showing they can still hit the heights, but over the long haul they simply can’t keep pace. Something is just slightly lacking, but that’s enough when you face opposition of the highest calibre.

So Simeone responds by drafting in Torres, it seems. A response which reintroduces a striker with mobility to the squad. Fine, but this ignores one salient fact. Mandjukic’s presence might be to the slight detriment of the team’s performance, but as an individual he has been performing. In fact, his strike rate is comparable to Costa’s at his peak. So does Simeone replace him with Torres, improving the balance of the side, but in doing so risk reducing its efficacy in the box? Because let’s not kid ourselves: Torres is nowhere near the man he was when he left Madrid and became an idol at Anfield. There’s no way he’ll score as many as Mandjukic will, in fact it’s silly to contemplate he’d even get close. He couldn’t even score goals in Serie A, or hold down a place in Milan’s first team for Heaven’s sake. How is he going to suddenly become a deadly striker in one of the Big Three leagues?

So Simeone wrestles with the same issues as Kevin Wilkin does, showing that the quality of football might vary widely across the breadth of the game, but its issues remain constant. Wilkin has to balance the fact that the Andy Bishop-Wes York combination looks threatening with the fact that Louis Moult scores goals. Bishop hits the net when playing with York, but the latter certainly doesn’t: would Bishop and Moult be a partnership in which both could sustain their strike rates, or would some chemistry have to be lost as one supports the other?

There is another option available to both coaches: a change of shape. Simeone could accommodate both Costa and Torres in a 4-4-2, a formation he turned to often last season with Costa and Rail Garcia up top. Garcia, a converted midfielder, is a player who chips in with goals rather than going on scoring sprees, so perhaps a similar balance could be struck with the drought-ridden Torres?

Likewise, a change of shape might be necessary for Wilkin. could Moult play off Bishop in a reversion to the 4-2-3-1 Wilkin favoured in the early weeks of the season? That was a formation which looked good going forward but left the full backs exposed. I presume that’s why Wilkin seems to have stepped decisively back from it. The argument for sticking with a 4-4-2 can be encapsulated in the massive improvement in Neil Ashton’s form now he has someone ahead of him to combine with and be protected by.

Whatever the solution they settle on, these issues illustrate the importance of a coach’s tactical deliberations. Never mind the Luddites who still claim you just have to stick the right eleven men on the pitch and demand passion from them; the success of both the Spanish champions and a mid-table fifth division side in the English pyramid that aspires to a play-off place depend massively on how their managers solve their striking conundrums.