Torino were off to a bumpy start to their Serie A campaign, collecting three points from three matches following last weekend’s 2-1 upset away to Atalanta.
Last month, Torino were beaten by Milan by the odd goal in five on the opening day with Italy striker Andrea Belotti missing a last-gasp penalty for Sinisa Mihajlovic’s team.
A resounding 5-1 home success over Bologna before the international break followed with hit-man Belotti grabbing a hat-trick but failing to score from the penalty spot for a second successive match.
On Sunday, England goalkeeper Joe Hart and midfielder Mirko Valdifiori made their debuts for Torino against an Atalanta side that was still pointless after two defeats to Lazio (3-4) and Sampdoria (1-2).
The fans were expecting Torino to continue where they had left off the fortnight before but to their dismay the team was yet undone by poor defending, including a Hart blunder, to leave Bergamo empty-handed.
Among other things, Sunday’s setback confirmed that Mihajlovic, formerly Sampdoria and Milan coach, still needs time to find his ideal formation.
Mihajlovic is trying to adopt an attack-minded 4-3-3 module, which varies from the 3-5-2 his predecessor Giampiero Ventura, now Italy coach, applied during most of his five-year stint at Torino.
This has also been a summer of wholesale changes for Toro who, apart from a new coach and his playing system, have added no fewer than 13 new players.
Hart (Man. City) and Valdifiori (Napoli) were the latest recruits to Mihajlovic’s squad on the transfer deadline day.
Before, Torino had brought in Antonio Barreca (Cagliari), Mattia Aramu (Livorno), Arlind Ajeti (free), Lucas Boye (River Plate), Leandro Castan, Adem Ljajic and Iago Falque (all Roma), Sasa Lukic (Partizan), Samuel Gustafson (Hacken), Luca Rossettini (Bolo-gna) and Lorenzo De Silvestri (Samp).
New signings apart, it was always going to be difficult for Torino to replace players of the calibre of Kamil Glik, Nikola Maksimovic, Bruno Peres and Ciro Immobile, who all left this summer.
Meanwhile, Mihajlovic is also struggling with a long list of injured players.
Ljajic limped off after playing just 28 minutes against Milan and again against Bologna the following weekend. Now, it has been confirmed that the Serbia schemer will not be available before eight to 10 weeks.
Albania centre-back Ajeti has also been ruled out for a month and Belotti will be back in action in mid-October after thigh trouble.
Torino took a huge gamble in signing Castan from Roma.
In 2014, the Brazilian defender was treated for a blood clot in his brain. He had surgery in December 2014 and since then barely played competitive football.
In July, Castan moved to Sampdoria. However, just before the start of the season, Samp decided to terminate his contract and instead he joined Torino.
At the time, Mihajlovic was in search of an accomplished defender after the notable departures of Glik and Maksimovic.
But Castan needs more weeks to gain his fitness and many argue that Torino would have done better had they signed another centre-half like Celtic’s Jozo Simunovic who, apparently, failed a medical test in Turin on August 31, the last day of the transfer dealings for the summer window.
Torino are still a works-in-progress and as such, Mihajlovic needs plenty of time to mould his team into an effective unit.
The season has now taken the shape of a transitory period for the Maroons. But, they badly need to get their best players back in action as quickly as possible to make sure they navigate in safe waters.