Know Thy Enemy: Torino Is Becoming A Solid Team

Back in 2005, Torino was saved by its current president Urbano Cairo, restarting from the Serie B, and it took 7 years before they were able to return to the Serie A. They can now be considered a solid team, especially thanks to their manager, Giampiero Ventura, who's the reason for the club's recent good form.

Tactics

The arrival of Ventura at Torino in 2012 coincided with the change from a "classic" formation based on a 4-man defense to the current 3-5-2,  which is one of the keys to their success in the last few years. Nowadays, playing with a crowded midfield made of quality players and physical ones is an advantage against most of the teams that prefer formations like 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-1-2, since it ensures the right balance between coverage and offense. For that reason, Torino play very aggressively - they try to take advantage of their numerical superiority at midfield and then counterattack quickly with extremely skilled strikers like Fabio Quagliarella and Milan's old friend Maxi López.

An example of Torino's method of attack: the two wingers follow the offensive maneuver and so does Baselli, who's extremely dangerous from outside the box.

They're a tough matchup for any Serie A team because of their offensive attitude and tactical preparation, and all credit should go to their manager Giampiero Ventura, who's coached this team perfectly for the last 4 years.

Roster and Roles

Here's Torino's roster:

Goalkeepers: Daniele Padelli, Luca Castellazzi, Salvador Ichazo.

Defenders: Danilo Avelar, Cesare Bovo, Bruno Peres, Kamil Glik, Nikola Maksimovic, Cristian Molinaro, Emiliano Moretti, Gaston Silva, Davide Zappacosta, Alessandro Dalmasso, Pontus Jansson, Valerio Mantovani.

Midfielders: Afriyie Acquah, Daniele Baselli, Marco Benassi, Alexander Farnerud, Alessandro Gazzi, Joel Chukwuma Obi, Sanjin Prcic, Giuseppe Vives, Nicolas Gorobsov.

Forwards: Amauri, Andrea Belotti, Josef Alexander Martinez, Maxi López, Fabio Quagliarella, Simone Edera.

The roster has enough depth to be compete in such a reinforced Serie A this season, but it could be better if Ventura had some more options at midfield since it's a pivotal area for his 3-5-2 formation.

Torino's projected starting lineup for Saturday night

Weaknesses

Ventura's team is far from being a perfect machine though. In effect, when they don't put enough aggressiveness on the field or the two wingers struggle to attack, they're vulnerable. Theoretically, Milan should find some space between Torino's defense and midfield -- especially starting from a central position and then moving towards one of the two wings -- so Bonaventura and Bertolacci might be the best players to put in the lineup if they wanted to take advantage of this tactical situation. Also, the fullbacks might be very important at creating numerical superiority on both sides.

Here's a graphic of Torino's weaknesses: there's a lot of space between their lines.

At the same time, the Rossoneri could take advantage of the distance between Torino's forwards playing the ball slowly and creating a complex maneuver, but they should pay attention to their opponents' aggressiveness in the defensive phase.