Torino – Lazio: Baroni Finds The Formula To Dissolve Torino’s Center (2-3)

The Torino buildup has established strong central patterns since the start of the season, but Lazio brought a defensive plan that broke these combinations from forming. By pressing outwards and utilizing transitions, Lazio inflicted a first league defeat for Torino this season.

Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.

Topping the Serie A table was a team from Turin, and not the one you usually expect.

Going into the weekend, Torino had moved into first place after a very impressive start under Paolo Vanoli. After getting Venezia promoted, he replaced the canals with the white tips of the Alps looking down on his new city. In Torino’s play, you can see the influence Antonio Conte has had on Vanoli, who he worked under for both the Italian national team and Chelsea. Unbeaten in their first five games, Vanoli has dealt with a tricky situation between the hierarchy and ultras, after two of their national team players (and club captain) were sold in the summer.

Igor Tudor resigned from his post at Lazio, after only three months, following reported disagreements between Claudio Lotito and the Croatian coach on transfer strategy. Replacing him was Marco Baroni, who produced the miracle job of keeping Hellas Verona in Serie A last season. Baroni has Lazio in a wide 4-2-3-1 structure, which hasn’t quite found the fluency between its forwards in the first few games of the season. 

Failure of a last fitness test meant that regular goalkeeper Vanja Milinković-Savić had to be replaced by Alberto Paleari. He wasn’t the only change, following their midweek Coppa Italia defeat to fellow . . .