Football Season Guide

The past campaign was a rather two-faced one for coach Ventura and his boys. In fact, having completely renewed the attack, they had a difficult beginning and it took them some time before repeating some of the wonders shown in the previous campaign. Once they did, they were quite spectacular, though. Not too surprisingly, their European campaign was a rather successful one as they reached the quarterfinals. However, in the end, the Bulls failed qualifying to this season’s European competitions. Mindful of the harm done in the past summer transfer campaign, this time around Torino management opted for a softer approach, sacrificing one key element for huge loads of cash, the Italian international Darmian, in order to strengthen the squad in all the departments. Thus, Zappacosta and Baselli arrived from Atalanta after an even and a very positive season respectively. Avelar joined in after sinking to the Serie B with Cagliari and Obi was loaned in by Inter. At the same time, coach Ventura will be unable to count on El Kaddouri, who returned to Napoli, his parent club, after a couple of positive seasons. On the other hand, Barreto, Masiello, Basha and Gonzalez will not be missed as I had little or no chances at all to express themselves on the pitch. Thus, in the usual 3-5-2 formation, with Padelli confirmed between the sticks, Maksimovic, Glik and Moretti should form the back three, with Bovo, Jansson and Gaston Silva ready to step in. Bruno Peres and Zappacosta should be contending for a place on the right flank of the midfield while Avelar should be preferred to Molinaro on the left. Baselli and Acquah should join Benassi in the middle of the park with Gazzi, Vives and Obi as their alternatives on the bench. Quagliarella will be the leader of the attack with Lopez aiming at becoming is main partner after all the good done in the second part of the past campaign and during the preseason. Thus, Martinez, who showed some qualities but also an amazing ineffectivenes in front of the goal, should fight for a starting place while Amauri does not seem likely to be a protagonist anymore. The feeling is that Torino are still needing a valid alternative for the attack and, for such reason, they are still actively looking for a last-minute bargain.