Saving Torino
So as stated above, I took the reigns at Torino with the club sitting in 19th place having just picked up 2 wins in 13 games. I came in to the club during the world cup break and I used the pre-arranged friendlies to try and figure out tactics and best 11's:
The aim moving forward is to try and make us solid at the back and with confidence and morale within the group almost rock bottom, I knew it was going to be a tough task. We took the lead against Piacenza, but our weak bench options cost us. We just couldn't compete with West Ham, whilst away at Angers we blew another lead. We absolutely battered Hannover with our returning World Cup players, but couldn't get the goal and once again, couldn't keep the clean sheet.
It didn't bode well for the upcoming league games, so I tweaked the formation slightly, alternating between a 4-1-4-1 and a 4-3-3 (DM Wide). I made the tactical switch of moving Schuurs in to a CDM role, to try and give us some protection in front of the back 4. Here's how January went:
Brianza were a team flirting around the bottom 3 with us and when we took an early lead through Vlasic, I was hoping for the perfect start. However, as per the friendlies, we surrendered the lead, but all in all, not the worst point.
Especially as we followed that point up with 3 at home to Cremonese. Buongiorno, Linetty and Karamoh found the back of the net and quite frankly, I knew it was a must-win with the run of fixtures we had coming up.
And that worry became true. We held our own against Inter going in to half time, with us being just 2-1 down. Unfortunately, our lack of quality in depth meant that as we made changes, they steamed ahead to take a 4-1 win.
Then, disaster hit. With 4 games in 10 days, my regular core were tired and the fringe players, well they did nothing to enhance their chances of breaking in to the first team. The 6-1 defeat was embarrassing and made what already seemed an impossible task in the next game away to Napoli even harder with morale so low. I almost just wanted the Napoli game to be over before it started.
I knew that the most important game of the month was the final one, at home to fellow relegation candidates Spezia. A Lukic pen and a Rodriguez free kick was enough to secure a massive 3 points and leaves the table looking like this after my first month in charge:
Well we are out of the relegation zone for now! Empoli do have 2 games in hand, but we've managed to double our wins this season and have now also got 2 very tough away games out of the way. We do have a very tough looking February coming up, with games against Roma, Atalanta, Inter and Fiorentina to navigate. /
As for the squad, about 9 of the 11 are now nailed on. I sent Lazaro back to Inter to cut down on or wage bill and released 22 year old French Midfielder Michel Adopo, but we are still operating at £45k over the wage budget.
We've made a decent start, but need to keep chipping away to ensure we survive and then look to rebuild in the summer of 2023.