Diego Simeone is confident his Atletico Madrid side are showing encouraging signs ahead of the start of the Liga season.
The 2013-14 Spanish champions were held to a 1-1 draw by Sagan Tosu in their latest pre-season clash, before ultimately triumphing 4-1 on penalties.
Despite not beating relatively modest opposition, Simeone believes his new-look side - who began the game using an unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation - are looking good ahead of the new campaign.
"I'm happy because the team is growing. They combined well," the Argentine coach said after the match.
"The feeling is good, we intend to try a different system to what we've been used to using before. It cost the team at the start, but then we had a good first half.
"We know that the team can improve a lot with Luciano Vietto, Angel Correa, Oliver Torres or Yannick Ferreira Carrasco. They have to grow a lot with us.
"They have to improve their tactical game, but never lose their talent. We need that talent to win games."
