The football spectacle that Torino put on display on 31 October against Roma, in an Olimpico which, at least at the start, was openly hostile towards the home team as has been happening for several weeks now, is something that borders on the obscenity, shame. Let no one be offended but the eleven lined up by Vanoli in the first half would struggle – in this historical moment – to make a good impression even in Serie C. Wrong passes, balls thrown away as if we were at the oratory, shyness in tackles, zero phrases in in the middle of the pitch, maybe a couple of initiatives in attack. And it’s not as if the music was different in the second half when the coach changed some players and revised the formation several times. Nothing.
The Granata left the capital taking home their fourth defeat in their last five league matches, not to mention the elimination from the Italian Cup thanks to the 2-1 that Empoli won at the Grande Torino stadium. After the match with Roma, the Granata coach expressed all his disappointment, said he was angry and accused his players of poor personality, of a too passive attitude, of little determination.
The fans, who have long been busy criticizing president Cairo for having weakened an already modest team that had finished ninth the previous year, are really starting to worry. The next two championship matches are thrilling: in Turin, on Sunday 3 November, a Fiorentina team is in excellent health, third in the standings and fresh from six consecutive successes, including two games in the Conference League. And on November 9th the derby takes place (at the home of the Bianconeri) and here the resignation of the Granata fans is well supported by the stark statistics: in the 19 years of Cairo’s presidency, between the championship and the Italian Cup, Torino have won only one match ( April 2015), drew 6 and lost 23. In short, if one were to listen to the objectivity of the numbers, the Granata, currently in ninth place in the standings with 14 points, 6 more than the penultimate Monza, Venezia and Lecce, risk finding themselves facing a precipice.
A reality that not even the most pessimistic fan had taken into account on the eve of the season. A reality which, by making due conjurations, risks being postponed to the 2020-21 year when Marco Giampaolo was on the bench, a visionary coach fresh from an unfortunate experience of just a few months at Milan, preceded, however, by three brilliant years at Sampdoria. Giampaolo remained in the shadow of the Mole for 18 games (2 wins, 7 draws and 9 wins), then his dismissal took place. He had gotten into confusion, a sort of short circuit had been created with the team, bad luck went hand in hand with mistrust and the whole environment was a bit lost. That year Torino then escaped by the skin of their teeth thanks to the ‘cazzimma’ who in the locker room was able to convey a great talent like Davide Nicola.
Here, Vanoli, in his first year on a Serie A bench, does not seem capable of transmitting determination and anger to his boys, who take to the field as if they were dazed and intimidated, as if the ball were a curious work tool for them. After an excellent start in the championship with game plans that fascinated the experts, much talk of ‘vainism’, the Granata broke up after their first defeat and never recovered. Bad luck, obviously, took its toll, starting with the injury of captain Zapata, the team’s most representative player, capable of leading the team alone with his physical power and innate sense of goal. But already with the Colombian striker, Torino had lost certain certainties, they were no longer as brilliant as they were at the beginning of the season and had suffered their first defeats.
In Rome Vanoli, certainly an ambitious and perhaps also visionary coach, gave the clear impression of not having a finger on the pulse of the situation and of not having yet understood how to make the most of the sincerely modest players on the pitch that the club has given him. disposition. Is it possible that the coach is getting confused? What do you see during the week when you coach the team? What can it convey? These are all questions that have tormented Granata fans in recent weeks, who are then forced to attend truly embarrassing shows. The only victory (the one against Como), in the midst of this negative series of matches, was due to the goalkeeper’s saves and the recklessness of a Primavera boy who took advantage of an error by the opposing defence. The rest is thick fog. So, Vanoli like Giampaolo? Those with a grenade heart obviously hope not. But if the next matches were to go as predicted (obviously) then there would really be something to worry about. And at that point not even Cairo’s supposed motivational speeches would make sense anymore.