Very good point! I would say in recent years we were at our best when Mauri was playing at high level but he can't be counted on like before. I can see Biglia being that player if he plays with some more confidence. Candreva and Keita are more direct attacking players that can take on defenders and get shots on target or deliver good crosses but they don't have the vision to make those incisive passes, that's why Candreva never caught on as a trequartista elsewhere.
Quagliarella was good. Really good but this isn't 2008-2011. Its 2014 and he barely gets any games. I'd much much rather have Giovinco. He was fantastic with parma and I dont see why he wouldn't be fantastic with us as we would rely on him as much as Parma had. I think he is a diamond in a rough for mid-table clubs like ours. Lotito said a player had gone up to him and said he is not happy to be apart of Lazio and its surroundings. Reporters to make headlines accused it was Candreva. Its anyone's guess who it was but if I had to guess I think it was Onazi. He has always admired the premiership, he isn't get first team football and he has some interest from top table teams as well in the premiership. I agree we need better defenders. Better defenders mean we wouldnt need strictly defensive midfielders and can focus on our struggling attack more of course with the right additions.(giovinco). I hope we go with Biglia as our lone DM as Ledesma as an alternative. We have to improve going forward. Klose out. Postiga out. Perea not ready. Floccari sold. We have our attacking wingers with Candreva and Keita but we are missing someone with a hard bite in front of goal and asking for Klose to play 50+ games this season was always asking too much and this is what happens. I dont think Djordevic is the answer either. We need a Yilmaz or someone of this quality to make Reja's formation and gameplay to actually work.
Dramatic 3-2 win over Parma keeps our European hopes alive. Solid match from the boys against a Parma team that were unbeaten in 17 until Wednesday. Candreva with a nice goal down off the bar in stoppage time, great job by Keita to get the cross in. Hopefully this win is the spark for a strong stretch run.
did you see Parma's second goal? That downer feeling felt like the summary of the season. I cant believe how amazing Marchetti was and how laughable he can be now. It's unreal. Good thing Sant'Antonio is awesome. Its going to be a showdown as Inter and Parma are far from a sure Europa spot with 4-5 teams chasing them.
Marchetti can be great but when he's off he's an absolute travesty. He cost us in Europe big time and that OG was comical. He simply lacks command for the position, he has moments of being an incredible shot stopper but his confidence levels seem so fragile. He was also poor conceding a bad rebound off Cassano's strike that led to the Biabiany goal. Inter blew it today giving up 2 goal lead and drawing Livorno. We still ply them one more time, perhaps Parma have lost a bit of their mojo with 2 straight defeats.
Good point on Biabiany's goal. A goalkeeper is trained to control their rebounds far.. high .. wide so it would be hard to control or out of play if the opposition would get onto the rebound. This rebound was right in the box for Biabiany to pounce on. Again I agree about Marchetti's confidence level being fragile. He is such a good goalkeeper to have between the posts when hes motivated and ready. His shot stopping, his aerial, his off the line rushes, his positioning is all top quality. When he's off his game an innocent ball on net can cause a lot of discomfort for him and evidently coughing up the ball or misplaying it completely. Question is, do we go with Berisha? or try to get Marchetti to what he was? Europa is a step away and those type of mistake goals can be decisive.
Could be the Final of the Primavera as well since Lazio and Fiorentina have got the most points in the Group stage. We already played Fiorentina the week before and it was a 1-1.
Our primavera is averaging something like 3.5 goals a game so the fact that we got 4 goals shouldn't be much of a surprise. Mamadou Tounkara didnt even score either. Lotito has said that 5 Primavera players can be joining next years team. With Tounkara being as big as a prospect as Keita Balde, Luca Crecco who is a U-18 National Team lock, Strakosha likely to be Berisha's backup next season, Minala as the heir of Onazi, I am still not sure who will be the 5th they are thinking about. It could be Josip Elez as he is highly regarded by Simone Inzaghi. Lombardi is also in great form and we still got Antonio Rozzi to return from Real Madrid B. Congrats to our boys. First the Scudetto Now C.I Bravo Ragazzi !
Here's a small compilation of the Lazio-Fiorentina Final back to back legs which our Primavera hammered Fiorentina's Scudetto now the Coppa Italia. No other team in Italy can argue that they have a better squad of kids. Lotito had said he plans on winning the scudetto in the future. As ridiculous that may sound, it is going to start with these class of players. With a strong primavera, Tounkara Keita all ready to sign extensions, Felipe Anderson and Perea signings, plus we are going after River Plate's #10 Lanzini who is an attacking midfielder that may or may not turn out shows that Lotito has these kids in mind to do big things so we should familiarize ourselves with these players.
Hi, Lazio fans. I was wondering if anyone could tell me about how Felipe Anderson is adjusting to Italy? I see that he hasn't played much, but did you like what you saw?
Hi So'inho Overall, Felipe Anderson has been a bit frustrating this season. At the start of the season he was very shy to create a play and did not want to make any mistakes. His role is to create scoring opportunities but he wasn't doing just that. On the same token, throughout the season he has started to build a little bit more confidence. Adjusting to a tactical Italian league is something that is normal in foreign teenagers. He has shown a lot of nice touches and passes on the ball, he nutmegs his opponents time to time and in some games you can see how confident and easy he is on the ball. Other games he looks very uncomfortable. Coach Edy Reja likes to use him as a Left or Right wide winger when Felipe has said he prefers the middle but will play wherever he is needed. In all honesty, I thought he would be given more gametime this season but he has gotten less than previous thought. He has had a few good Coppa Italia games and Europa League games. However, the last Europa League match where we got eliminated by Ludogorets he took a penalty kick without permission of the coach and dismissed the coach's prefered spot taker and he ended up missing the penalty shot. He got substituted almost immediately and hadn't seen him in a month after that. You can see after he got substituted how bad he felt as the camera was firm on him ready for him to shed a tear. Still in that very game he was really doing well until his penalty shot got saved which he was the one who got the call for Lazio in the first place. He is slowly getting time back and is making some substitute appearances as our other young prospect Keita Balde is doing a really fine job on the wing. Lazio fans know Felipe's quality and we have seen it. He actually just last game as a sub assisted a last minute Candreva tieing goal which was crucial for our hopes of qualifying for Europa League. He has talent that he is holding back and to shy to make a mistake. When he learns to not hold back he will become a regular in the team as he was bought to be our upcoming lock in our starting lineup. The quality is in him, he has to unleash the beast from within. Hope this helped and answered what you were looking for.
Definitely. Thanks for taking the time out to make such a lengthy reply. I'm glad to hear that he's showing positive signs in Serie A. His time at Santos was largely underwhelming (due hugely, in my opinion, to the backwards coach we had for two years), but the talent was there to bloom if he could just find a foothold. Hopefully he becomes a key players for you guys.
Hey no problem. Its a pleasure for me to talk about Lazio anyways. I forgot to add When Edy Reja took over as coach mid-season one of the very first things he said after a couple of training sessions was that he was really impressed with Felipe Anderson's skill level. Check back for Felipe at the end of the season and mid-season next season. He should be getting more time and he is not a forgotten player in the squad, President Lotito wants a strong upcoming youth and he is a focal point.
Thanks for the layout Nicky. Im sure both teams will be charged and motivated for the Rome Derby. I expect nothing less of a win the whole way. Too bad Rozzi and Cataldi cant come back from loan and help destroy the rest. I wonder if Keita is still eligible since he is within age. Still I have full confidence.. Keita Crecco Strakosha Minala Tounkara Elez Murgia Lombardi have all trained with the senior squad in patches throughout the season, not to mention very strong performances from the rest of the squad (Palombi Seck Serpieri Filipinni to add). This is a very sound squad and it would be really bad if we can't continue the success especially beyond the ugly cousin ass riomma. With a heartful of courage, I expect the cup.
We do not need to win against Roma to confirm anything. The tournamount is about promoting young players and a lot of them are talented. We already know we are better then Roma since we were in the same group as them and we topped the group. Ironically, this the only good thing about the season. The fact that we have some really good young players. Today we also launched an event to show that we will be building a dedicated academy for children starting from seven years old at Formello. The only other good thing I can remember about this season was the event commemerating the first Scudetto we won and that was not even organised by the club. This season was a complete waste of time. Starting from the disaster summer mercato of which nothing happenned and we missed out on players in embarressing circumstances. Not for the first time as well from Lotito and Tare who are completely out of their depth here. We missed out on Eurupean Football even though that was the minimum objective and there for the taking. We did not even win a Derby match. We went out of the Europa League to Ludogorets who are an unknown entity. To top it all off our fans are protesting and not coming to matches leaving the players to play in macabre circumstances. Our squad is worst then last season. Hernanes was sold with no replacement arriving. The defence is abysmal. All of them can leave except Radu. We need quality reinforcements in this area urgently. The midfield has a lot of bodies but none with a real quality other then Biglia. No one who can unlock defences or with an eye for a pass. Lotito has got a mega job to do to get the fans' confidence back(if he had it to begin with?). The squad needs to be rebuilt urgently. Most fans have completely lost patience.
lol we beat rioma 3-2 with 10 guys and we were trailing at half time too. Class always shines. Next... against Torino on Saturday as we beat them in the finals last year to win the scudetto. Hopefully we can find the same success to make it to the finals.
so we lost to Torino in a very shady manner. To start we were without Minala and Lombardi our 2 starters to start the game due to suspension. Then early in the game a Torino player recklessly tackles our star winger Luca Crecco that send him to the hospital with a fractured collar bone and two ribs. That apparently was not worthy enough of a red card which was a mistake. So advantage Torino. Not only that but we gave Torino an own goal on their third goal which ended up a 3-3 draw going into extratime. And finally, Torino's luck pushed through deep into the second overtime and that is the end of Lazio's ambitious run to the scudetto. The underdog wins this time and a new primavera champ to be decided Wednesday
Fan reaction to Pioli has been overwhemingly negative. Polls I have seen are between 75% to 80% against Pioli on Italian speaking web-sites. If Lazio was healthy and proper then there is no chance that a coach of Pioli's calibre should even be considered let alone actually become the manager of the club. Pioli has achieved nothing that shows he should be manager of Lazio. Maybe mid-table clubs that in bad seasons that can be relegated and in good seasons can be in Europe like Sampdoria, Genoa, Parma, Udinese and Palermo. I put my expectations at a minimum and for the first time in a long time do not look forward to a new season. This signing is an indictment of what the club has become under Lotito. A club that is depreciating because of a lack of ability but above all desire or know how of how to take the next step. A club that makes one step forward and then immediently makes many steps backward.
Apparently Reja had a say in the decision Lazio management took on hiring Pioli. It is true, Pioli hasn't achieved any success in his coaching career except perhaps avoiding relegation which he led Bologna for a half a season into this season. Pioli also was a cheap option im sure and I think Allefri could have been available if he offered him a salary that he was looking for. In any case, class and quality cannot be denied so if Lotito can put a good team in front of Pioli then the team will speak for itself. Example we are even closer to signing Parolo along with Basta Candreva all equally as close to signing with Lazio. This is an excellent start but not enough. Let's see who else Lotito Tare can give to Pioli
We are talking about Lotito and Tare, who have embaressed Lazio in the past transfer windows and have never delivered a good transfer window. I would not put any faith in them based on their track record. Like the old saying goes "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me". No wonder fans are planning to boycott the season.
I would have definitely taken Allegri I thought he did a good job at Milan and was more to do with the players and management for Milan's recent slide. He's coached big games for Milan in the CL setting them up well vs Barca on several occasions. I don't know what to think about Pioli, he's an uninspiring hire but I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt. But his track record is anything but impressive, Bologna did some good things the past few seasons but were relegated this past season. On another note Candreva was fully purchased by Lazio today. He also was great and arguably MOTM vs England. Decent number of Lazio players in the WC; Candreva, Klose, Gonzalez, Onazi, Biglia and Lulic.
Well two Laziale face off in the wc final and both will most likely be starters congrats to Klose and Biglia. Also as great as Klose has been our management deserves credit for putting their faith in him, don't think he would be in this position had he gone elsewhere. A true champion he is.