[FM 2024] Torino FC - Sogni di battere la Juve

[El Payaso]

I have been in a search, not a Holy Grail, but instead a long-term save throughout the FM 2024 process. This has proved to be a difficult task even though in general I enjoyed the game more than ten years ago when I played my last long-term save with Real Oviedo on FM 2015.

The reason why this has turned out to be difficult has often been due to my own doing. With Chelsea, I signed too many players and started winning, with Real Betis the big winter update messed up my whole gaming world and the latest save with Palermo was once again because I had signed too many players. 

It is now time to start a save where I stay more true to myself and the gameplay I enjoy. And for this, I found a perfect club to begin with. This also aligns well with my thinking that I wasn’t yet done with Serie A which seems to be one of the most interesting big leagues in the world. There are a couple of real giants in the league and in total more or less 7 teams that can compete for the Scudetto.

THE STARTING POINT

When starting with Torino, I was really happy to see the objectives that the board set for me. In terms of squad building, the club wants to rely heavily on our youth academy which is at a good general level, yet still quite far away from the best clubs in Italy. 

In terms of tactical approach, the board wants us to be both defensively solid and play attractive football. This for me means fluid counter-attacking football which is also the approach that I have always liked the most. Both in real life as well as in Football Manager. 

This tactical approach from the board will allow me to revisit the world of 5-man defensive lines as well as use more generalist roles compared to the specialist that I used with Palermo. It will also allow me to build a different kind of club DNA which of course now will consist of totally different kinds of attributes that are suitable for counter-attacking football. 

The starting post for this career update is a bit dull and doesn't provide a lot of information. In the next one though, I am going to be talking a bit more about our imaginary manager Claudio Marchisio, the squad, our tactical approach and squad-building, desired club DNA, pre-season, as well as rules and aims for this save game.
 

Edited May 11 by El Payaso

[Mogzilla86]

Nice I'm managing Torino in my save it's 2042 I joined them a season and a half ago they are still in the doldrums but I've got them running 2nd behind Napoli this season

Good luck with your save 

[AlfieLucas]

I hate Juventus with a passion, so seeing Torino surpass them will be good. Good luck with the Bulls.

[El Payaso]

Don Claudio

Having Claudio Marchisio as Torino's manager is something that isn’t realistic but in Football Manager, you start creating your world right after you have set your game up. This is why I for example like to play with the original mode where the winter transfers have already taken place in the summer and I have the final squad of the season in my hands right in the beginning.

Marchisio is one of my favorite Italian players of all time, along with Anrea Pirlo and Francesco Totti who both played a major part when looking up to professional players when I was still playing in my years of youth. 

Claudio’s classiness and versatility as a player make him also an ideal candidate to be a manager. This is why I am a bit surprised that he hasn't at least yet taken the path of coaching in real life. 

I started the managerial journey with a UEFA B coaching license and also with domestic-level footballing experience to add just a little bit more challenge in the beginning.

Key players

Ricardo Rodriguez | Raoul Bellanova | Duvan Zapata | Ivan Ilić | Samuele Ricci

I could have easily included all our three starting centre-backs (Alessandro Buengiorno & Perr Schuurs) here but as I wanted to include players from different positions, I only included Ricardo Rodríguez. I was a bit lucky with the Swiss as I asked our director of football to extend his contract on day one and just two days later Rodriguez came to me intending to explore his options after his contract expires at the end of the season. This demand did not apply to the already existing negotiations which saw the 30-year-old extending his stay at Torino until 2026. 

In general, there is a real mix of experience in youth in this list. Atalanta loanee Duvan Zapata has seen it all in Serie A and at the age of 32 and with a quiet season behind him, his career is close to its sunset. The Colombian who scored 23 goals in his first season at Atalanta will be looking to make an impression and force his way back to the good books of his club. For Torino, it is an expensive loan deal as we will pay both his massive €89k a week salary as well as €100k a month whether he plays or not. 

Ivan Ilic is a player that we look to be our main provider of goals while another 22-year-old Samuele Ricci will work as the engine of our defensive midfield, carrying and delivering the ball up to his more advanced companions. The young and promising midfielder has just signed a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2028.

Raoul Bellanova is a new arrival from Cagliari. The right wing-back is the fastest player in the club and he will have a vital role as a starter and perhaps even finisher of counter-attacking moves down the right-hand side. 

Pietro Pellegri and Saba Sabonov are two of the main prospects within the club. The latter is a bit of a question mark for me as he has remained in Russia until the beginning of the starting season and that is something that I cannot take lightly from my players. In the under-20 squad, the main prospect is the Turkish midfielder Emirhan Ìlkhan who will spend the season on loan at Basaksehir.

Tactical approach

We have a fairly low defensive line and a goalkeeper whose strengths are in the penalty area’s aerial domination, I saw it as a logical choice to just use a standard goalkeeper instead of going to a fancy sweeper keeper which is more suitable in a possession-based system where the goalkeeper could also have his part in the build-up.

Our main strength within the team is the quality and versatility of our centre-backs and this was also something that I wanted to try and utilize in some way. The selection of roles is done both in terms of utilizing their skill sets as well as the positional play. It would be easy to go with a standard selection but I think this could be a better answer to our board’s desire to play entertaining football. I would also see this as a balanced selection where we don’t sacrifice too much of our defensive stability. This is all of course in theory and we are yet to see how this works in practice. 

In midfielder, I could have easily gone with a destroyer and playmaker but I don’t want this to restrict our defenders in their attempt to try and find our more advanced players with a more direct approach which should also be one of the main outlets for our chance creation. With segundo volante and ball-winning midfielder, we have a runner and stay-at-home option available. The half-back in this instance is expected also to switch places with our libero to make us a bit harder to predict for the opposition.

As both of our currently fit left-sided wing-back options are right-footed, I wanted to make this role to cover the ground that the bombing forward Segundo Volante might leave in the midfield. This should also give our defenders an easy option in the midfield when we decide to build the play patiently. On the right-hand side, we, of course, want to allow Raul Bellanova the freedom to get forward as much as he wants. His player profile should already allow this without the role being attacking. 

The supporting attacking midfielder should be the one dropping deep and linking our midfield together with the striker. The attacking version on the other hand is encouraged to make over and under-lapping runs inside the penalty area. 

The striker role was the most difficult. Advanced forward would be a logical choice in a counter-attacking system but on the other hand, we are not going to be hitting the opposition on a break all the time and we might even control the events against some opponents. I think a complete forward is a good option here as he can both link up with our more advanced players as well as being our main goalscoring threat. This is also a role that is suitable for our best striker Duvan Zapata who really has no weaknesses and who also likes to play with his back towards the opposition goal. 

With the team's instructions, I have once again chosen to keep things as simple as possible. A counter-attacking system in general doesn’t mean that you are going to be looking to attack quickly through the whole 90 minutes. It might even be that the buildups are slow and consist of short passes for 90% of the time and there are only a few quick breaks during the game as that is how things in general work. This is why I for example have kept the passing style mixed as I want my team to be able to decide what is the right kind of approach in a specific situation. 

Team instructions

I have only added a few team instructions to encourage the team to look for a specific style of play when the opportunity arises. I want the team to mainly win the ball back deep in our half before launching a deadly counter-attack or slowing the play down if the opposition is well-organized. 

As we have only played through the pre-season and managed just a handful of matches, this is just the moment where the real work with observing and tinkering starts. Friendlies can of course give you some kind of picture of the system but I trust the real games way more.

I also have another system in my back pocket which consists more of generalist roles and doesn’t rely a lot on positional play. This system is easy to take into use if and when the plan A turns out to be unsuccessful. 

In the second system, our inverted wing-back turns into a regular wing-back in support duty, the centre-backs are regular ball-playing defenders and the second defensive midfielder is a ball-winning midfielder instead of a half-back. Otherwise, the tactic is the same.

As we have both Sanabria and Duvan Zapata to use when the season progresses, it is also possible that we will add a two-striker version with only one attacking midfielder. More about that perhaps in the mid-season update. 

Club DNA

The DNA in the club is of course closely tied to the style of play that we are playing. The main attributes that we will be looking at both within the squad, as well as in recruiting, are the following.

Concentration. Counter-attacking football is often about soaking pressure and avoiding hits. This means that there is no real room for errors and this is why concentration plays a key role in success.

Decisions. Successful counter-attacking is all about making the right choices at the right times. Whether it is a decision to try to break quickly or clear the ball instead of trying to play out the defense. Making the right choices plays a key role in a successful counter-attacking approach.

Pace. Speed kills, especially in a counter-attacking system. When hitting teams on a break, it is vital to be able to play balls behind the opposition defenders as well as be able to beat their players in one-against-one situations. Pacey players play a key role, especially in the transition phase where we are looking to catch the opposition off-guard.

Work-rate. Everybody needs to work hard in the pitch for us to be solid throughout the whole 90 minutes as well as being able to win the ball back in the right places. If I look for example my most advanced trio on the pitch, I expect both the striker and two attacking midfielders to do their part in terms of winning the ball back and getting us the turnarounds we need. 

Teamwork. A successful defensive style of course demands a good team effort and this is why teamwork is a key attribute. We cannot afford to approach things in a way that for example, PSG did a couple of years ago when they had a clear teamwork unit as well as Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe minding their own business. All our players simply need to work as a unit

Determination is one of the most important singular attributes in football and I see this especially important in a style of play that demands grit and will to win. 

General rules for the save

Sign players only when needed. The limit per season is three new signings in total (including summer and winter transfer windows). If the club loses one of the key players, mentioned above, these can be replaced with an immediate effect. 

All the senior team signings should be also strongly based on stats: so data should be the one justifying the signings. If for example, we want to upgrade our left wing-back area, data should clearly show that our current option for that position is performing below the league average in that position. This is where the pizza charts, provided by the Mustermann skin, come in handy as we will be easily able to detect these statistics in just one view. 

Invest most of the income in youth development. When the club has money to use, I want to invest most of this in improving our facilities, youth coaching, and recruitment. In the long term, I want Torino to become the best producer of Italian talent in the country. In about ten years, the starting eleven of Torino FC should consist mainly of our local players.

Sign mostly Italian players. The aim is to progressively grow the percentage of domestic players in the first-team. The aimed percentage is 80% and we should be able to reach this number in just a couple of seasons. The current number in first-team is 28% as 8 of 29 first-team players (including loaned in and out players) are Italians. 

Our Director of Football will be taking care of all contract negotiations. This means that if he cannot agree to a new contract with an existing or a new player, then the deal is going to be off. The manager will not be able to interfere in these negotiations in any way. 

The players that we sign should always come through our scouts’ recommendation. All the staff that we sign come through job adverts or staff recommendations. This means that we will not be using the player or staff search, which have both been deleted from my skin. 

Winning trophies has no major significance in this save but as the story banner tells you: beating Juventus means everything. This means that we will be focusing a lot on the local derbies. What is even more important is that we will keep loyal to the rules that we have set: play counter-attacking football and rely on youth development instead of buying players. These two main cornerstones should keep the career update interesting, hopefully for years to come. 

Aims for season one

• Top-half finish in the league
• Conceding less than 40 goals
• Backroom staff overhaul
• First improvements to our training and youth facilities
• At least one good prospect in the yearly youth intake
• Extending the contracts for our important players

The next update will be a mid-season update where we will be checking how we have been doing so far, how the tactical approach has evolved as well as some of the youth development results. 

Thank you so much for all the comments so far! Please keep them coming and especially criticize my tactical approach if you see it suitable.  

Edited May 11 by El Payaso

[TheMartello]

1 hour ago, El Payaso said:

Don Claudio

Having Claudio Marchisio as Torino's manager is something that isn’t realistic but in Football Manager, you start creating your world right after you have set your game up. This is why I for example like to play with the original mode where the winter transfers have already taken place in the summer and I have the final squad of the season in my hands right in the beginning.

Marchisio is one of my favorite Italian players of all time, along with Anrea Pirlo and Francesco Totti who both played a major part when looking up to professional players when I was still playing in my years of youth. 

Claudio’s classiness and versatility as a player make him also an ideal candidate to be a manager. This is why I am a bit surprised that he hasn't at least yet taken the path of coaching in real life. 

I started the managerial journey with a UEFA B coaching license and also with domestic-level footballing experience to add just a little bit more challenge in the beginning.

Key players

Ricardo Rodriguez | Raoul Bellanova | Duvan Zapata | Ivan Ilić | Samuele Ricci

I could have easily included all our three starting centre-backs (Alessandro Buengiorno & Perr Schuurs) here but as I wanted to include players from different positions, I only included Ricardo Rodríguez. I was a bit lucky with the Swiss as I asked our director of football to extend his contract on day one and just two days later Rodriguez came to me intending to explore his options after his contract expires at the end of the season. This demand did not apply to the already existing negotiations which saw the 30-year-old extending his stay at Torino until 2026. 

In general, there is a real mix of experience in youth in this list. Atalanta loanee Duvan Zapata has seen it all in Serie A and at the age of 32 and with a quiet season behind him, his career is close to its sunset. The Colombian who scored 23 goals in his first season at Atalanta will be looking to make an impression and force his way back to the good books of his club. For Torino, it is an expensive loan deal as we will pay both his massive €89k a week salary as well as €100k a month whether he plays or not. 

Ivan Ilic is a player that we look to be our main provider of goals while another 22-year-old Samuele Ricci will work as the engine of our defensive midfield, carrying and delivering the ball up to his more advanced companions. The young and promising midfielder has just signed a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2028.

Raoul Bellanova is a new arrival from Cagliari. The right wing-back is the fastest player in the club and he will have a vital role as a starter and perhaps even finisher of counter-attacking moves down the right-hand side. 

Pietro Pellegri and Saba Sabonov are two of the main prospects within the club. The latter is a bit of a question mark for me as he has remained in Russia until the beginning of the starting season and that is something that I cannot take lightly from my players. In the under-20 squad, the main prospect is the Turkish midfielder Emirhan Ìlkhan who will spend the season on loan at Basaksehir.

Tactical approach

We have a fairly low defensive line and a goalkeeper whose strengths are in the penalty area’s aerial domination, I saw it as a logical choice to just use a standard goalkeeper instead of going to a fancy sweeper keeper which is more suitable in a possession-based system where the goalkeeper could also have his part in the build-up.

Our main strength within the team is the quality and versatility of our centre-backs and this was also something that I wanted to try and utilize in some way. The selection of roles is done both in terms of utilizing their skill sets as well as the positional play. It would be easy to go with a standard selection but I think this could be a better answer to our board’s desire to play entertaining football. I would also see this as a balanced selection where we don’t sacrifice too much of our defensive stability. This is all of course in theory and we are yet to see how this works in practice. 

In midfielder, I could have easily gone with a destroyer and playmaker but I don’t want this to restrict our defenders in their attempt to try and find our more advanced players with a more direct approach which should also be one of the main outlets for our chance creation. With segundo volante and ball-winning midfielder, we have a runner and stay-at-home option available. The half-back in this instance is expected also to switch places with our libero to make us a bit harder to predict for the opposition.

As both of our currently fit left-sided wing-back options are right-footed, I wanted to make this role to cover the ground that the bombing forward Segundo Volante might leave in the midfield. This should also give our defenders an easy option in the midfield when we decide to build the play patiently. On the right-hand side, we, of course, want to allow Raul Bellanova the freedom to get forward as much as he wants. His player profile should already allow this without the role being attacking. 

The supporting attacking midfielder should be the one dropping deep and linking our midfield together with the striker. The attacking version on the other hand is encouraged to make over and under-lapping runs inside the penalty area. 

The striker role was the most difficult. Advanced forward would be a logical choice in a counter-attacking system but on the other hand, we are not going to be hitting the opposition on a break all the time and we might even control the events against some opponents. I think a complete forward is a good option here as he can both link up with our more advanced players as well as being our main goalscoring threat. This is also a role that is suitable for our best striker Duvan Zapata who really has no weaknesses and who also likes to play with his back towards the opposition goal. 

With the team's instructions, I have once again chosen to keep things as simple as possible. A counter-attacking system in general doesn’t mean that you are going to be looking to attack quickly through the whole 90 minutes. It might even be that the buildups are slow and consist of short passes for 90% of the time and there are only a few quick breaks during the game as that is how things in general work. This is why I for example have kept the passing style mixed as I want my team to be able to decide what is the right kind of approach in a specific situation. 

Team instructions

I have only added a few team instructions to encourage the team to look for a specific style of play when the opportunity arises. I want the team to mainly win the ball back deep in our half before launching a deadly counter-attack or slowing the play down if the opposition is well-organized. 

As we have only played through the pre-season and managed just a handful of matches, this is just the moment where the real work with observing and tinkering starts. Friendlies can of course give you some kind of picture of the system but I trust the real games way more.

I also have another system in my back pocket which consists more of generalist roles and doesn’t rely a lot on positional play. This system is easy to take into use if and when the plan A turns out to be unsuccessful. 

In the second system, our inverted wing-back turns into a regular wing-back in support duty, the centre-backs are regular ball-playing defenders and the second defensive midfielder is a ball-winning midfielder instead of a half-back. Otherwise, the tactic is the same.

As we have both Sanabria and Duvan Zapata to use when the season progresses, it is also possible that we will add a two-striker version with only one attacking midfielder. More about that perhaps in the mid-season update. 

Club DNA

The DNA in the club is of course closely tied to the style of play that we are playing. The main attributes that we will be looking at both within the squad, as well as in recruiting, are the following.

Concentration. Counter-attacking football is often about soaking pressure and avoiding hits. This means that there is no real room for errors and this is why concentration plays a key role in success.

Decisions. Successful counter-attacking is all about making the right choices at the right times. Whether it is a decision to try to break quickly or clear the ball instead of trying to play out the defense. Making the right choices plays a key role in a successful counter-attacking approach.

Pace. Speed kills, especially in a counter-attacking system. When hitting teams on a break, it is vital to be able to play balls behind the opposition defenders as well as be able to beat their players in one-against-one situations. Pacey players play a key role, especially in the transition phase where we are looking to catch the opposition off-guard.

Work-rate. Everybody needs to work hard in the pitch for us to be solid throughout the whole 90 minutes as well as being able to win the ball back in the right places. If I look for example my most advanced trio on the pitch, I expect both the striker and two attacking midfielders to do their part in terms of winning the ball back and getting us the turnarounds we need. 

Teamwork. A successful defensive style of course demands a good team effort and this is why teamwork is a key attribute. We cannot afford to approach things in a way that for example, PSG did a couple of years ago when they had a clear teamwork unit as well as Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe minding their own business. All our players simply need to work as a unit

Determination is one of the most important singular attributes in football and I see this especially important in a style of play that demands grit and will to win. 

General rules for the save

Sign players only when needed. The limit per season is three new signings in total (including summer and winter transfer windows). If the club loses one of the key players, mentioned above, these can be replaced with an immediate effect. 

All the senior team signings should be also strongly based on stats: so data should be the one justifying the signings. If for example, we want to upgrade our left wing-back area, data should clearly show that our current option for that position is performing below the league average in that position. This is where the pizza charts, provided by the Mustermann skin, come in handy as we will be easily able to detect these statistics in just one view. 

Invest most of the income in youth development. When the club has money to use, I want to invest most of this in improving our facilities, youth coaching, and recruitment. In the long term, I want Torino to become the best producer of Italian talent in the country. In about ten years, the starting eleven of Torino FC should consist mainly of our local players.

Sign mostly Italian players. The aim is to progressively grow the percentage of domestic players in the first-team. The aimed percentage is 80% and we should be able to reach this number in just a couple of seasons. The current number in first-team is 28% as 8 of 29 first-team players (including loaned in and out players) are Italians. 

Our Director of Football will be taking care of all contract negotiations. This means that if he cannot agree to a new contract with an existing or a new player, then the deal is going to be off. The manager will not be able to interfere in these negotiations in any way. 

The players that we sign should always come through our scouts’ recommendation. All the staff that we sign come through job adverts or staff recommendations. This means that we will not be using the player or staff search, which have both been deleted from my skin. 

Winning trophies has no major significance in this save but as the story banner tells you: beating Juventus means everything. This means that we will be focusing a lot on the local derbies. What is even more important is that we will keep loyal to the rules that we have set: play counter-attacking football and rely on youth development instead of buying players. These two main cornerstones should keep the career update interesting, hopefully for years to come. 

Aims for season one

• Top-half finish in the league
• Conceding less than 40 goals
• Backroom staff overhaul
• First improvements to our training and youth facilities
• At least one good prospect in the yearly youth intake

The next update will be a mid-season update where we will be checking how we have been doing so far, how the tactical approach has evolved as well as some of the youth development results. 

Thank you so much for all the comments so far! Please keep them coming and especially criticize my tactical approach if you see it suitable.  

 

I think you made an error on the right centre back? The image says BPD on support?

[El Payaso]

1 minute ago, TheMartello said:

 

I think you made an error on the right centre back? The image says BPD on support?

S means stopper.

[TheMartello]

3 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

S means stopper.

Ow damn... my bad!

Thanks for clearing that up!

I´m following your story with great interest, keep up the good work!

[Jogo Bonito]

As mentioned elsewhere, you picked another of the Italian clubs that are under consideration for me if I chase some of that same culture. 

No doubt also that the graphical presentation will make this extra appealing! Will be following for sure, best of luck.

[SixPointer]

Beautiful written and a fantastic idea for a good long term save.

Very interested to see your team shape when in and out of position. I like the idea of the rotations on the left hand side of the system. Could throw up some wicked combos when you counter. 

[Vođi]

I've read also your Palermo story, looking forward to this one. Keeping firgers crossed this save can stick!

If I may a minor suggestion/correction, in my opinion the title should say: Sogni di battere la Juve (not sogna).

[El Payaso]

2 hours ago, Vođi said:

I've read also your Palermo story, looking forward to this one. Keeping firgers crossed this save can stick!

If I may a minor suggestion/correction, in my opinion the title should say: Sogni di battere la Juve (not sogna).

You're probably right. I don't really know any Italian so I just relied on Google translate. 

Thank you for all the kind words do far. I have only had the time to manage three games so far and it of course took me almost 7 hours to get through the pre-season so it is going slowly. 

Will try to get something written next week! 

[El Payaso]

AND SO IT BEGINS

We started the season with a bit of an injury crisis as we were missing 5-6 players for the first two months of the season. The most significant was our goalkeeper Vanja Milenkovic-Savic who missed the whole of August and was covered by backup Luca Gemello who did well by having two clean sheets and having himself included in the Serie A team of the month with a 7.53 average rating. Much of this is thanks to his saved penalty against Fiorentina. We also qualified for the second round of Coppa Italia by beating Modena narrowly after being 3-0 up. 

Our first big test came on match day 4 where we met the then-unbeaten Atalanta at Gewiss Stadium. Even though the stats tell you that our first defeat of the season was well-deserved, I think we did well as most of the home side’s shots came from the dodgy starting positions that set-pieces often have. 

We were about 15 minutes away from getting a point and only succumbed to an Alessio Buengiorno bad forward pass which started a chain of errors and a Gianluca Scamacca goal.

The season continued with a three-game stretch in just six days, during which we nullified 10-men Bologna, were less than a minute away from a clean sheet at Stadio Friuli, and lost Raoul Bellanova, Samuele Ricci, and Sasa Sabonov with rather long-term injuries: 

Our second big test was against Napoli. We started the game brightly by scoring the first goal of the season which was loyal to the style that we wanted to create the chances from:

We won the ball back deep in our half, after which the segundo volante took the space away in possession. He then plays the ball to deep-dropping Duvan Zapata, who pulls out a couple of big errors from Napoli’s defense. He then links well with the attacking midfielders by releasing Nikola Vlasic to score his second of the season so far. A poorly defended situation from the Napoli defense, but this is what often happens in quick turn-overs.

The party was over soon as Victor Osimhen equalized from a hopeful deep cross, Ivan Ilíc got himself injured and Osimhen also buried his second chance of the game. 

With Ilíc joining a long list of regular starters in the injured list for the next 3-4, the message was clear: we were running out of players and now practically forced to swap to a two-striker formation. 

Before the October international break, we traveled to Genoa where we fought to a bore draw. The injury crisis continued with further two absentees as Duvan Zapata and Ricardo Rodríguez fell victim to the opposition’s rather ascetic approach to the game. Both would be out for a few weeks, yet we luckily had a few returning players to rely on in the upcoming games. 

Another 0-0 draw followed in a home game against Sassuolo. In this game, the most intriguing battle was seen in our left flank where Jeremy Toljan and Domenico Berardi were trying to rip us apart with little success. The away team had 16 shots in total out of which only 1 was on target. We were mostly on the receiving end but came close to scoring in the 83rd minute when Adrien Tameze hit the bar. 

October ended with a third consecutive clean sheet as well as a narrow 1-0 victory against Monza with Antonio Sanabria’s first goal of the season. It was a scrappy game where we limited the home side to three shots in total and 0.26 xG against our 6 and 0.54. We had three of our previously sidelined players back (Rodríguez, Zapata, and Ilic) but all of them were still far away from match fit. All of them got important minutes though and this allowed us to go back to our 1-striker formation. 

The first quarter ended in the Coppa Italia Second Round where we were almost brushed aside by our rivals Sampdoria. A late goal and the first goal contribution of the season from Ivan Ilić saw us through. It was an important goal for the Serbian as was the brace for Pietro Pellegri. 

After the first fourth of the season has been played, we hold the best defensive record in the league and are still in the race for European qualification. These are still early days, of course, but at the moment things are looking fairly decent for us.

IN NUMBERS

• 16th best team in terms of expected goals, which is to be expected
• 3rd least loss of possession which means that we have been playing way too safe type of football
• Most clean sheets in the league with 6 in total
• 17th best in possession-won stats, 15th in interceptions, and 20th in fouls made ( only 62 in total)  in the league, which could mean that we could be more aggressive out of possession. 
• 10th in shots against with 98 in total.
• Only 181 headers lost so far (18th in the league) which means we are an aerially strong team. 
• +4.13 in expected goals against which means that we have either been quite lucky or our goalkeepers have been doing their job. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Injuries have been mixing our deck of cards a lot so far this season and I could even consider us fairly unlucky in this aspect. 

The biggest things that I have noticed so far are that we have been 100% loyal to our aims and gone defense first. This has also been showing in the scoreboard where our attacking play has been fairly tame as we haven’t yet found the counter-attacking phase that we have looked for. 

It is fairly easy to see that our centre-backs are the best players on the team as we have made it difficult for all our opponents to break us down. The starting XI also in general is generally capable but then on the other hand during the dying minutes when you would need an impact to get the necessary goal, we don’t have any players to bring on to do it. This is especially evident in the wing-back and attacking midfield areas where we are lacking squad depth.

We have been given a small amount of money to play with in the upcoming January transfer window and it could well be used in a rotation option attacking midfielder whom we could throw in even as a starter if either Nikola Vlašić or Ivan Ilić is injured. 

Could someone like Manuel Mónaco fit the bill? Especially as Ilić’s performances have been quite dreadful so far. 

TACTICAL TWEAKS SO FAR

• We have gotten rid of the play out-of-defense instruction to encourage the counter-attacks happening.
• Libero has been turned to a support role to offer more movement towards the midfield.
• Half-back is now switched to an anchorman.
• The attacking-minded attacking midfielder has been changed to a shadow striker to offer more firepower and movement up-front.
• Both of the attacking midfielders have been instructed to roam, take more risks, and move into channels in an attempt to get more out of them.
• In the upcoming games, we will be trying the get stuck in instruction.

I have been doing a huge amount of micro-managing so far and already used +20 hours in this save. The baseline for solid defending is already, so the thinking is now fully on how we could be more threatening and hit the opposition on a break. 

Edited May 11 by El Payaso

[SixPointer]

Great work identifying weakness in the system this early on using the numbers to make clear concise decisions. I’ve always found pure counter attacking systems hard to create myself so am keen to see how you go about it. 

[El Payaso]

2 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Great work identifying weakness in the system this early on using the numbers to make clear concise decisions. I’ve always found pure counter attacking systems hard to create myself so am keen to see how you go about it. 

I have had good luck with it in previous versions of the game but I have practically never used 3-man defenses before, so it takes time to get this working. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that even with comprehensice highlights our games are rather boring and lack highlights, so it is hard to pick obvious glaring errors in the system. Well, at least the defense is working like a charm at the moment. 

Also as I am rarely using any opposition instructions, this is a real low-block tactic instead of putting maximum closing down through OI's which I have seem some people do when they claim that they're playing defensive low block. The ME has received a lot if criticism but I actually find it really good in terms of using totally different kinds of systems. 

[Vođi]

Il 7/5/2024 in 15:27 , El Payaso ha scritto:

• Half-back is now switched to an anchorman.

Do you keep the defender behind him still as a stopper?

Solid start to the season, defense is the base and now you can build on it.

[El Payaso]

3 hours ago, Vođi said:

Do you keep the defender behind him still as a stopper?

Solid start to the season, defense is the base and now you can build on it.

That's a good question. Have to wait and see. The tactic in general is still pretty muck work-in-process as I keep all the time picking up things that should or could be changed. 

[El Payaso]

START OF THE SECOND QUARTER

The start to the season had been fairly kind in terms of schedule but this is the moment where the tests really begin. We haven’t appeared in those two big games so far but especially the end of the year demands that we start doing it. The end of the year is going to be brutal but on the other hand, there is no better way to end the year than the first Derby della Mole of the season. 

As the team was finally close to full health, injuries hit us twice again before the match against Cagliari as Ricardo Rodríguez caught a cold and Nikola Vlašić injured his ankle. This meant that we would be once again without the services of our two important players for the next weeks. It also means that it was again time to go back to a two-striker formation. 

ALL THREE TACTICS IN USE

I have changed things around again in terms of team instructions as the team now has a clean slate in their hands. I have only left the counter-attacking option and space into space active. Otherwise, I want things to be simple and counter-attacks to happen naturally. All the changes that will happen from now on are in player instructions and are based on what happens during the matches. 

The two striker formations allow us to utilize our talent up front in the form of Duván Zapata, Antonio Sanabria, and Pietro Pellergri, who are all good enough players to start games at this level. 

Secondly, the two-striker formation should allow us to utilize the pass-into-space instruction better than before as more players should be attacking the spaces behind the opposition defense and the channels. 

Thirdly this allows us to move one of our strikers to an attack duty as he should not be anymore that easily isolated as he has another striker close to him. 

The deeper striker role is a bit challenging as the idea for the counter-attacking system is to have as many players under the ball as possible and ideally no players slacking from their defensive duties. I ended up using a pressing forward in a support duty instead of a deep-lying forward in the hope of seeing the second striker dropping to the midfield to help in our defensive efforts. 

The 3-4-1-2 was my first idea here as it doesn’t change things much compared to the 3-4-2-1 but after thinking things over a bit longer, the 3-3-2-2 might even suit the team better. This even though it throws Vlašić out of his natural position. 

In terms of defending, I did not see reasons to change anything. Whatever works, simply works. 

NOVEMBER 2023

Two early goals saw us through the 19th-placed Cagliari who controlled the game based on stats. They had 7 shots and 0.54 xG in the first half where we played with our 3-4-1-2 system but we limited them to just two and 0.02 xG in the second half when changing to the system with a DM and two CMs. 

Duván Zapata was the hero of the day with a beautiful effort from 20 meters out as well as setting up Karol Linety to a free shot at the edge of the penalty area. Ivan Ilić played his best game of the season in Serie A as the sole attacking midfielder (45min) and mezzala (45min). 

A mixed bag of results during the match-day saw us climbing to the 5th position and just 3 points away from the Scudetto. 

The match against Lazio was an odd one. During the first half, neither team did practically anything going forward and after the first 30 minutes, both teams only had one shot in total. At the start of the second, we had two good chances early on through Antonio Sanabria and Duván Zapata. 

We then made two rare errors through our wingbacks losing their players in just minutes. We beat Lazio clearly in terms of xG but it was one of those days where the opposition simply converts their rather low-quality chances and takes the victory. We have done this to the opposition so often this season, that there isn’t too much room for complaining. 

Errors continued pouring in early on against AC Milan who used their opportunities ruthlessly. Two goals from 0.54 xG meant that Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had at least momentarily lost his hero status at the club. 

I wasn’t expecting anything to happen in the hope of a comeback as the visitors with now the best defensive record in the league were looking comfortable. Somehow it happened though as substitute Pietro Pellegri was twice able to beat the Milan defenders inside the penalty area twice beating the offside line narrowly.

Our defensive record has deteriorated thanks to the last two games, but we are holding the joint best for the least goals conceded along with AC Milan.

Lazio’s Mauricio Sarri and Bologna’s Thiago Motta were the first two managers to be sacked this season. Elsewhere in Europe Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag faced the same fate. 

DECEMBER 2023

A clean sheet against Hellas Verona was a priority number one which we bottled up with yet another poor defensive effort down the flanks and a goal from a low (0.07) xG opportunity from a narrow angle. While I cannot blame Vanja too much, the same probably doesn’t apply to the opposition manager Marco Baroni who saw their keeper Simone Perilli letting in two long-range shots, directed almost directly toward the middle.

We were the better team here and deserved the victory by limiting the opposition to 0.46 xG in total. What was even more delightful was Raoul Bellanova’s return to the lineup from the bench and immediately making an impact when he won the ball close to the halfway line and started the counter-attack that led to our third goal here:

I decided to reintroduce the low block back to the system in the match against Empoli. It ended up working like a charm as we limited the home team to four shots and 0.10 xG in total. This, while being our effective selves in attack. Raoul Bellanova was again the man making the impact by winning the ball close to the halfway line before releasing Duván Zapata in our first goal. 

The other two had a bit of FM 2007 vibes as they were produced with long balls from the keeper to our aerially capable Antonio Sanabria who was then able to bring other players in with good flick-on and hold-up play. This aspect has had much potential for us so far this season and it was nice to see it finally paying off also in terms of goals. 

I fully expected Frosinone to be a difficult team to beat with a counter-attacking system at home as they were 14th in the league and definitely would settle for a draw. Thanks to some minor injuries and Karol Linetty being one yellow card away from a suspension, I decided to rotate a bit and bring in Sasa Sabonov to the defense and Gvidas Gineitis to the starting lineup. We once again limited the opposition to 0.36 xG, and four shots in total out of which zero troubled Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in his goal. Pietro Pellergri did what he does by scoring the only goal of the game from a scrappy penalty area chaos. 

A point and a clean sheet were more than enough for me at Stadio Olimpico against in-form AS Roma. We had three decent chances in the game to score but were otherwise the second-best team here. As the home side were playing with a deep 4-2-3-1, they were really able to put our wing-backs to a real test. Raoul Bellanova was the one occupied more against Spinazzola and Nicola Zalewski but luckily we were able to keep Romelu Lukaku quiet inside the penalty area and make blocks to the pull-backs made to their defensive midfielders. A 1.07 xG for the home side, along with 15 shots in total, out of which 3 were on-target, also meant that Vanja was doing a lot of work to earn his salary here.

Inter on the other hand were the first team to really take us to the school so far this season. We managed to punish them twice for their errors but were otherwise just trying to survive. Markus Thuram probably should have scored at least two or three here but luckily didn’t have his shooting boots on. 

The first local derby between the two Turin sides was really a game to remember even though it ended in a 1-1 draw. The team responded really well after going 1-0 down early on from a poorly cleared corner kick. 

We equalized before the half-hour mark through Antonio Sanabria’s only second goal of the season so far and should have been 2-1 through man of the match Ivan Ilic whose goal was overturned with the slightest of offside which was caused by Duván Zapata who had zero influence in the whole chance.

Juventus piled up more shots during the game but we had the better chances and 2.29 xG in total. Sadly we ran into an in-form Wojciech Szczęsny who made three real game-savers for his team. Juve mainly threatened us from corner kicks where Federico Gatti seemed to be in the end of every single cross.

Key stats

• Shots: 18 - 14
• On-target: 7 - 4
• xG: 1.59 - 2.26
• Possession: 56-44
• Fouls: 12 - 14

Avoiding a defeat meant we would finish the year in a 7-game unbeaten run and above our rivals in the league table. 

The managerial game has already gone crazy this season:

In terms of Torino, you can see that low-block has been the one for us to go. 

Mid-block (3 games):

• Goals scored: 5
• Goals conceded: 5
• Games won: 1
• Games drawn: 1
• Games lost: 1

Low-block (16 games):

• Goals scored: 16
• Goals conceded: 8
• Games won: 7
• Games drawn: 7
• Games lost: 2

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MIDFIELD

As the two-striker formation with a double pivot has lately become our first choice of tactics, I have had a few thoughts about the midfield roles. 

Especially in games where we are narrowly leading at the end of the game, I have noticed that the attacking mentality of the opposition has opened us many chances to counter but players like Karol Linety and Adrian Tameza have not been able to pick the progressive pass that would lead to a counter-attack and a likely scoring chance. In the game against Frosinone, Tameze alone had three good chances to start a counter, which he failed to deliver.

This has made me think about moving Ivan Ilić permanently to the defensive midfielder position and try maybe the Regista role with him. In my opinion, this could be executed in both of the midfield triangle systems as we have hard-working midfielders and strikers ahead of him and three centre-backs to make sure that we have enough men behind the ball. 

I think having a creative midfielder in a defensive midfielder position would help us in both building up slowly as well as starting the quick counters when the opportunity arises. Even though Regista is a highly creative role with a certain type of forward aggression too, he doesn’t come without any defensive responsibility. What I like about the Regista too is the fact that this is an Italian role which would definitely fit us like a glove. Along with already mentioned  Ivan Ilić, we also have Samuele Ricci, usually deployed as a segunda volante, capable of mastering this role. 

The Regista should have a high amount of passing options available for him to feed as we would practically always have at least a few (3-5)  more advanced players ahead of him. 

Other small changes

• I have ditched the inverted wing-back and we now have a defensive minded wing-back on the left and a supporting complete wing-back on the right.
• The striker roles are now defensive forward on support duty and attack duty. This purely down to the fact that these roles do not slack in defense and they do link-up and attack as well.
• We have got rid of the libero and are now using wide centre-back, ball-playing defender, and a stopper centre-back roles in our defensive trio. 

SEASONAL AIMS

We had clear season aims set up, and at the halfway mark, it is good to see how we are doing. 

I think we have done well in terms of all of these. The upcoming youth intake is looking decent and if this prediction is true, we might be getting at least one good prospect who seems to be a goalkeeper. 

Our defensive record is excellent and that has also influenced in our league position which is two notches above our predicted finish. 

We have also managed to tie up many key contracts as Ricardo Rodríguez, Samuele Ricci, Perr Schuurs and Alessandro Buongiorno have all decided to extend their stays in Turin. 

PLAYER PERFORMANCE

See the full performance data from this link.

It’s really not a big surprise that none of our players is really standing out in terms of stats and average rating. 

Vanja Milinkovic-Savic has been the standout so far. The big Serbian is not a fancy sweeper keeper that someone like Pep Guardiola favors but his style of play is perfect for our team. He makes no hassle making the saves and is excellent at collecting the crosses. 

None of our defenders in performing well compared to others in the league. Actually, all of them have been poor in basically all of the metrics but I would like to think that this is down to the team effort. When every player in the team does their share, the defenders have to do less individual work. 

JANUARY ASSAULT?

As our defense has been performing really well, especially in terms of numbers, it’s not a big surprise that our defenders have generated plenty of interest from other clubs.

• Vanja Milinkovic-Savic has drawn interest from Saudi Arabian clubs.
• Alessandro Buongiorno has an interest from Inter Milan.
• Perr Schuurs has been targeted by Dortmund and Wolfsburg.
• Ricardo Rodríguez is on the shortlist of three different Saudi Arabian clubs. 
• Mërgim Vojvoda could receive an offer from Lyon or Al-Ain. 

The strange thing about these are the fact that for example Schuur’s value has dropped like a stone during the first half of the season, which could lead to fairly low bids for the former Ajax centre-back. Combine this with the possible unsettling factor, and we could be in trouble.

Out of these players, I would only be willing to sell the latter two. They have both been playing a lot for us but especially Saba Sazonov has shown that he would be ready to step in for the centre-back position if the opportunity arises. We also have plenty of depth for this area and a few capable players who haven’t practically featured at all so far.

Our 19-year-old centre-back Alessandro Dellavalle and midfielder Gvidas Gineidis could well be players who we are looking to loan out for the rest of the season. 

If we manage to keep the bigger and richer clubs at bay and keep hold of our starting players, there is really no need to bring anyone in during the winter transfer window. I am happy with the squad and they have so far shown to be capable of getting us the results.

I did have a bid accepted for Inter's Stefano Sensi for just 750 thousand euros but our Director of Football was unable to agree terms with the 28-year-old. The former Italy international would have been an ideal player to fill in the small void that we have in the midfield as he is able to play multiple roles and even strengthen the starting 11. This deal would have also definitely allowed us to send the young Lithuanian Gineidis for a loan. It still might be that we will try to get this deal done again.

Edited Saturday at 07:49 by El Payaso

[SteinkelssonFM]

You are making significant progress and managed to pick up some notable results.

 With regards to playing top up or top down, I would prefer playing top down, especially for the brand of football you are looking to implement. I often find having a player in the DM strata can often lead to you becoming more attacking due to the additional cover. 

If he is also capable of playing those progressive passes you will also have someone who will help you to exploit the opponents vulnerability when transitioning from attack to defence.

An enjoyable read this Saturday morning. 

[El Payaso]

1 hour ago, SteinkelssonFM said:

You are making significant progress and managed to pick up some notable results.

 With regards to playing top up or top down, I would prefer playing top down, especially for the brand of football you are looking to implement. I often find having a player in the DM strata can often lead to you becoming more attacking due to the additional cover. 

If he is also capable of playing those progressive passes you will also have someone who will help you to exploit the opponents vulnerability when transitioning from attack to defence.

An enjoyable read this Saturday morning. 

Been really happy with the fact that the team is able to make it difficult for all the opponents. Inter were the only one who we weren't able to keep up with in the first half of the season. 

The midfield is a bit tricky thing. I want the main creator, who would be Ilic, to be productive but on the other hand I don't want our style of play to become too attacking and on the other hand sacrifice the defensive stability. Three centre-backs do create a good base but basically still I want all of our players to do their defensive job and the DMs are obviously one the most important players and roles in this. 

Regista could be a good hybrid role between deep-lying and roaming playmakers.