Stefano Pioli was the runner up at Italy’s Manager of the Year awards in Florence earlier this month. Max Allegri, the winner, revealed that his vote had gone to him. The case was obvious.
Pioli’s first season at Lazio had been a great success. He guided a team that had finished in mid-table to a place on the podium, their first in almost a decade, and qualification for the preliminaries of the Champions League. Lazio were the most improved team in Italy and played the most entertaining football in Serie A. They also reached the Coppa Italia final and took Juventus to extra-time. The deciding goal scored by Alessandro Matri came moments after Filip Djordjevic had hit the post. An upset had been tantalisingly close.
This season, by contrast, has been a big disappointment. A year ago Lazio were second and in the midst of an eight-game winning streak. Today they are eighth. The swing in points is 16. It’s a familiar sign of how quickly things can change in football that Pioli’s job is now in jeopardy.
Lazio never seem to back up one good season with another under owner Claudio Lotito. A successful campaign is often used as an excuse not to do what he is always reluctant to do in the first place, which is spend any money. And so rather than push on, Lazio rest on their laurels and go backwards. Take last summer. Lotito decided to wait until after Lazio had secured qualification to the Champions League before seriously investing in the team. Instead an unprepared and incomplete team lost to Bayer Leverkusen and never made it.
The team began the season on the wrong foot and enthusiasm faded. To compound matters, rather than reinforce the defence, Lazio added more wingers and 10s to a squad that already had enough. They bought almost exclusively young because of the upside but all were unproven with the possible exception of Milinkovic-Savic. They represented gambles. New to the league, Kishna and Ravel Morrison have undeniable talent but there were always questions about their temperament. Expecting an immediate and sustained impact from them was optimistic. It also appeared to unsettle Keita. He was already frustrated at a lack of first team opportunities last season. How were they going to give him the game-time he believed he deserved now?
Pioli also put Antonio Candreva’s nose out of joint when he overlooked him for the captain’s armband after Stefano Mauri was released [then picked up again]. Lucas Biglia received the honour instead. Felipe Anderson, whose star shone as brightly as that of Paulo Dybala last season, had his head turned by interest from Manchester United.
The disillusionment at Lazio will presumably come as a surprise to the casual observer after the euphoria generated by the previous campaign. Within it, however, were not insignificant blows to morale. We’ve mentioned the Coppa Italia final but what about the Derby della Capitale that followed. Had Lazio won it then they would, in all probability, have finished second and qualified automatically for the Champions League. Instead they lost in the 85th minute and as Totti’s T-Shirt made clear, it was “Game Over.”
Defeat in the Italian Super Cup and particularly the Champions League play-offs were devastating. In quick succession Lazio missed out on two trophies and the chance to play in Europe’s elite club competition. Picking them up after a series of setbacks like that and convincing them they could do just as well, if not better, this season was always going to be a challenge.
It became an even greater one when Stefan de Vrij, their star centre-back got injured, and the folly of not procuring adequate cover was laid bare in all its lunacy. Lazio’s defence ranked third a year ago. It has since declined to 11th, shipping 10 more goals. Without de Vrij and whenever Biglia is absent from his role in front of the defence, the backline gets shredded. However, an even greater regression has been noted going forward. Lazio’s attack was better than anyone’s this time last year. In the meantime, they have scored 20 goals fewer.
Fingers can be pointed at the strikers. Veteran Miroslav Klose, Lazio’s top scorer last season, didn’t get his first league goal until earlier this month. Filip Djordjevic is without one in 16 games in all competitions. Meanwhile Matri has found the back of the net only once this calendar year. If that’s not already enough of a concern, goals from midfield - the story of Lazio’s success last season - have dried up. Anderson, Parolo and Candreva got 10 each a year ago. Mauri hit nine. The drop off has been alarming. Players who got Lazio 39 league goals last season have mustered only 16 this time around. Their stars haven’t been anywhere near their stellar best.
To what extent then is Pioli at fault? Is it all down to the ownership and the players or is he owed a share of the blame? Creditably Pioli has held his hands up and accepted that no one should escape responsibility. Too often he has got his initial tactical approach wrong. Too often he has sent the players out with the wrong mentality. Only Verona have conceded more goals in the first quarter of an hour than Lazio this season, leaving his team with a mountain to climb.
There is also a debate as to whether opponents have got wise to their style of play as well. Everyone knows Lazio have pace to burn on the counter, so teams have done their best to take it away from them. Victorious on the road only three times this season, their attack ranks 13th in this regard. Pioli has attempted to vary things and provide Lazio with a Plan B. More often than not, however, the effect has been to confuse his own players rather than confound their adversaries.
The background to all this is a half empty Olimpico. An underwhelming season isn’t the whole story. In fact it’s a footnote. The ultras have long protested against Lotito and are on strike after the prefect of Rome partitioned the Curva Nord with plexiglass. While understandable, the protests don’t help motivation. Players are entitled to wonder what all their efforts are for if there is no one to celebrate them. Out of the Coppa Italia. Eliminated, quite humiliatingly, from the Europa League by Sparta Prague, Lazio have nothing to play for other than the redemption that Sunday’s Derby della Capitale provides.
Lose it and their season is over. It’s as simple as that.
Do Lazio have what it takes to secure victory over rivals Roma this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
