Five rounds into Torino’s season, Kian Fitz-Jim has become one of the constants in Ignazio Abate’s side. The Dutch midfielder has started every league match, a record shared within the squad only by defender Saul Coco and Nikola Vlasic, and his value has emerged in more than one kind of moment: the long runs, the recovery tackles, the delivery from set pieces and the quieter decisions that keep Torino’s play moving.
The coach and the club
The international break gives Abate and his staff time to examine alternatives, even with a number of first-team players away on national-team duty. Academy players can help complete training exercises, allowing Torino to test ideas in conditions closer to a proper match.
After the match in Bologna, Abate indicated that a four-man defence was among the options to be developed. Such a change could bring a more attacking approach, as it did during spells in Florence and at the Dall’Ara, where Torino looked more threatening after altering their structure following half-time.
Whatever shape Torino choose, Fitz-Jim appears equipped to remain central to it. In the regular 3-5-2, he has increasingly settled as the left-sided central midfielder beside Mandragora in the middle. In a 3-4-2-1, he can operate deeper, the role he filled in his earliest appearances for the Granata. A back four could see him pushed forward again as a mezzala, while he can also be used as the player setting the rhythm from deep.
He has experience of a 4-3-3 from his Ajax youth years, but sees familiar principles in Abate’s work. “Abate likes his teams to play,” Fitz-Jim said. “Several of his ideas resemble what I knew in Holland. I feel I can learn from him, and I think his football suits me.”
A midfielder for different demands
Fitz-Jim’s opening weeks have supplied evidence for that flexibility. Against Sassuolo, he covered 11.74 kilometres, the sixth-highest distance recorded by a Serie A player in one match after five rounds. He has also averaged 1.4 successful dribbles per game, placing him among Torino’s leading players in that category.
The figures do not fully describe his contribution. He can take free-kicks and send balls into the area, but also arrives into open space, threads passes through defensive lines and helps circulate possession when Torino need control. There have been repeated moments when he has directed a teammate towards the safer or more progressive pass, seeking to make the next phase of play cleaner.
His defensive awareness may be even more revealing. From the opening fixtures, the 21-year-old has shown a tendency to recognise danger before it fully develops, moving towards the ball to challenge, obstruct or close off the final action.
The intervention in Bologna
That instinct was clear during the first half in Bologna. Torino gave the ball away while attempting to build from the back: Coco, positioned wide, played into Mandragora, who was pressured by Tommaso Pobega. In an incident that might have been stopped for a foul last season, play continued.
Pobega suddenly had room near the edge of the Torino penalty area and a clear view of goal. Yet Fitz-Jim reacted immediately, tracking across the line of the shot and throwing himself into a sliding block. His intervention diverted an effort heading towards the far corner, an attempt Perri would have struggled to reach.
It was one defensive action in one afternoon, but it captured why Fitz-Jim has quickly become difficult to leave out. Torino are considering changes during the break; their Dutch midfielder has already shown that he can give Abate an answer in almost any version of the team.
