Coach Ivan Juric reiterated his fury at Torino for refusing to strengthen the squad. ‘It’s a cry for help. If you hire me as a coach, you need different types of players.’
The Granata suffered their second consecutive Serie A defeat, losing 2-1 away to Fiorentina, but once again it was evident this squad does not suit their new tactician.
“We need a very different type of physicality to play the kind of football we want to play,” Juric told Sky Sport Italia.
“If you lose the ball that often and lose every individual duel, you aren’t going to get very far. It’s not an easy situation to fix.
“Fiorentina played better tonight and deserved the victory.”
Juric vented his frustration in a press conference yesterday, warning Torino President Urbano Cairo had not told him the club was in ‘austerity’ and wouldn’t make any investments.
“I have outlined the situation within the club for over a month, what we need to be competitive. What I said yesterday was a cry for help,” added the coach.
“This is a Torino team that in the last few years conceded 140 goals and mathematically avoided relegation only in the final rounds. I lost important players, I made my analysis.
“If you hire Juric as a coach, you have to do something with these players. I gave my honest, clear, sincere analysis. We are way behind schedule.
“I have been honest with the club from the start, in order to play the football I have in mind, we need to do certain things. The way we are now, we’re not one thing or another.”
How did the club hierarchy respond to Juric’s public cry for help?
“I don’t know, really, perhaps they thought that after the narrow defeat to Atalanta we could just carry on like this.
“It’s not about one role where we are lacking, when you play a certain type of football, you need certain characteristics. When you hire a certain coach, you have to give him what he is asking for.
“I am not asking for the moon here. We sold Lyanco and are not bringing in anyone to replace him.”
Tommaso Pobega is on the way from Milan, but only on a one-season loan, so Juric has found himself back in the same situation that caused him to walk away from Hellas Verona.
“The President at Verona was clear with me the first year, we didn’t have money, we had a lot of loans, for example Matteo Pessina. We worked with him, he returned to Atalanta and became phenomenal. That’s like a defeat to me. Pobega is a good player, I like him, but it feels like we are improving players for other clubs.
“As I said, when I arrived, there were other ideas and other situations proposed to me. I am struggling here, I have to admit it.”
Everyone was puzzled when he left Hellas for Torino. It made absolutely no sense. At Hellas, he seemed to have the club and players behind him, and it was a job that reconfirmed Juric as a potential top coach. Instead he went and took a job with a team that is by far worse than the Genoa side that he adopted.
Torino in many ways need a relegation in order to restart.