Avoiding relegation in the dying moments of last season, Torino have made a sound start to the fresh season. With a much improved tactical changes, Torino are heavily focussing on the European places. Torino are currently positioned at seventh place in the Serie A table with 33 points, just 2 points behind the fifth placed, Hellas Verona.
Torino are a very well organized team at the moment, playing a quite decent football. Catennacio has been implemented in perfect manner and hence, the team has relied more on counter attacks for their goals. By taking a genuine look at the Serie A top scorers chart, we can determinate two vital names standing behind the Torino’s success- Alessio Cerci and Ciro Immobile.
Cerci is a right winger by profession, who does also possess the ability of playing as a supporting striker or a main striker. In the majority of the last season first half games, Giampiero Ventura played a bold 4-2-4 formation with Cerci and Birsa on the upheld flanks. But as the time marched on, Ventura preferred to opt 3-man defense, sighting the success the same. Cerci was given the supporting striker role in the new formation.
Cerci scored eight goals and assisted 12 in his first season at Turin. The confidence of the Italian attacker has intermittently increased after the arrival of Ciro Immobile. Cerci have already scored 10 goals in the current season, with almost half of the season is yet to be played.
Immobile is a selfless striker, who has brought to light by Zdenek Zeman during the youngster’s years at Pescara. Immobile’s last season with Genoa was highly unsuccessful as he scored only 5 goals in the sum of 33 games played. But, Ventura has changed the fate of the Italian, making him as one of the best strikers in Italy at present.
The synchronization between Cerci and Immobile is working fine and the total of 21 goals scored between them in this season so far is the cutest of examples to prove so.
World Cup dreams:
Considering the performances in the recent Euros and Confederations cup, it is far clear that Prandelli wouldn’t be playing 3-man defense in the world cup. Analysing the world cup qualifiers and friendlies, we can slightly predict Italy will play a much similar 4-2-3-1 formation in the grand tournament.
Luckily for the Torino duo, none of the Prandelli’s first choice strikers (Balotelli and Gilardino) have hit the form in this season so far. Despite being in poor form, Balotelli’s place in the starting XI is fairly to be questioned, which stands apart from the logic.
In the later stages of Euros, Prandelli played 4-4-2 formation with Marchisio and De Rossi on the flanks. In the Confederations cup, the Italian tactician played a much similar 4-2-3-1 with Candreva and Giaccherini on the wings. So, in the span of a year, it was clear that Prandelli had learnt from his previous mistake of playing central midfielders on flanks. As Prandelli has followed the same trend in recent friendlies, we can expect this same attribute in the world cup too.
So, if Pandelli plays a 4-2-3-1 formation, Cerci has to fight only against Candreva for his place in the starting XI. Arguably, Cerci had enjoyed a better half of the season than the Lazio attacker. If Cerci continues to impress in the remaining half of the season, there is already an indication that Prandelli would consider him seriously for the starting berth.
On the other hand, if Prandelli plays two strikers in 4-4-2, there exists a chance for Immobile to deliver his goods partnering Balotelli.
However, as just half of the season is over, the duo should concentrate on not letting their form down in the remaining half in order to earn more faith of their boss.
(Stats via squawka)