Torino vs Monza: Two Struggling Sides, Zero Clean Sheets, One Team Has to Stop the Bleeding
SportSignals Match Desk · Football analysis desk ·
Friday night football in Serie A. Torino against Monza. Two clubs in poor form, both shipping goals, neither side looking remotely like a team that has its house in order. I will say this plainly: whoever wants it more will win this. End of.
Torino: One Win and a Lot of Problems
Listen, one win from five in Serie A is not a platform to build on. It is a warning sign. Torino beat Fiorentina 2-1 in early September and have done very little since to suggest they have turned a corner.
The thing is, the numbers do not lie. One win, one draw, three losses. Five goals scored, eight conceded. Not a single clean sheet in five matches. That is not a goalkeeper problem. That is an attitude and accountability problem. You do not go eighty per cent both-teams-to-score without a defensive unit that has completely stopped competing as a unit.
Their most recent result was a 1-1 draw with Bologna. Before that, a 0-2 loss to AS Roma. They had their moment against Fiorentina but quickly went back to dropping points against Sassuolo and AC Milan, both by the same 1-2 scoreline. Torino are porous and inconsistent. That combination worries me more than any single result.
Monza: Worse on Paper, and the Paper Is Right
Monza have conceded twelve goals in five Serie A matches. Twelve. Their only win came against Sassuolo, 2-1, in mid-September. Since then, they have lost to Lecce 2-3, drawn 1-1 with Parma, and lost to Udinese 2-3 before getting beaten 1-4 by Inter.
The thing is, you can accept losing to Inter. What you cannot accept is the pattern. Every match, goals are going in at both ends. Monza have been involved in both-teams-to-score in all five of their matches. One hundred per cent. That tells you everything about their defensive standards right now. There are none.
Their attack at least scores. Eight goals in five is not nothing. But scoring two and conceding three does not win you anything. It just makes the defeat look slightly more respectable. I do not care about respectable.
What This Match Comes Down To
This is a basics game. Compete, stay organised, execute the simple things. Whichever team does those three things better for ninety minutes will win this fixture. Neither side has demonstrated they can consistently do all three, which is exactly why this match is genuinely difficult to call on quality alone.
Torino have home advantage and slightly better defensive numbers across this sample. That should count for something. But their form string reads DLWLL and that tells you the confidence is fragile. Monza are WLDLL and equally unconvincing. The one thing both teams guarantee right now is goals. Both sides will likely score. Both sides will likely be careless at the back.
The Bet
Both teams to score. You do not need to overthink this one. Torino have conceded in all five matches. Monza have scored in all five matches. The conditions are there. I back one selection hard and this is mine. Both teams to score in Torino vs Monza on Friday night.
If either side keeps a clean sheet here I will be genuinely surprised. Not wrong, just surprised. The difference is important.