Europa League, Lazio - Salzburg, Thursday, 17-9-09

It was just bad luck...

Stop blaiming Bizzarri because he had a very good game: he had to go out in that occasion, but there was a wall on his way (bad coincidence) that didn't let him to get the ball. If he claimed the ball, Diakite should have moved or at least ease Bizzarri's intervention.

Will be better next time, we had enough of luck this season, sometimes it has to turn against you. Cheer up!

Face it: If we won due to injuries or tied players and then looses to Catania, I rather loose to Salzburg. But I'm not proud of Lazio right now, but I just want to move on, so....

Come on boys, chins up.... We lost, we played really bad, cribari made the biggest mistake ever but we must continue with the play from the juve game, and just forget this match... No need to play the blame game... We all now Lotito didnt do enough to bring a new defender in but smelling as happens... We as Lazio fans must always remember that Lotito brought us back to life and the the debts of the club is not so big any more... If you truly are laziale just always know that the eagle flies higher and that every team can have a bad game... Forget this game... Look forward and support the team, we must stand united and cheer SS Lazio as we all know we can...!!! Forza Lazio

Lazio can't afford to drop points at home. A few other teams had poor results like Celtic and roma but they were on the road. What's going to happen when Lazio are on the road? To be honest I do not feel good about this team so far. I have watch every game this season and they haven't played that great. I feel they are not as strong as last season. They have to play at 100 % the full match. But they don't. They sleep for a few minutes and then get punished. I hope this result will wake them up. Forza Lazio.

can any one describe how meghni and elisue played ???????????

Nesta wrote:

can any one describe how meghni and elisue played ???????????

Meghni was his usual self, a couple of brilliant moves along with a sense that the rest of the time he's average at best.

Eliseu is still struggling, he is trying but no end product.

The fact of the matter is we are a weaker team than the 10th place finish team of last year, which is pretty worrying considering almost all our direct rivals have added great quality (Roma apart).

That defeat hurts a lot, but there is plenty of playing time left, i doubt Salzburg will have what it takes to get more points than us in the remianing 5 games.

We need to beat Levski before going into the Villareal double header or we will surley leave ourselves in a near impossible situation.

The way we want things to happen is for Villareal to beat everybody besides us and maybe we can squeeze 2nd place in the group, which after all, would be mission accomplished, but 3 points are a must away to Levski.

I have one positive thing to say about this. If we needed to lose this was the match. This is a good wake up call also and if this helps us to win Catania then I accept it. If we dont win we are in deep sh!t. In this kind of group stage you dont have to win every match to get through. 10 points is enough.

This belongs in nightmare section but still it was only one game. Next game against Catania will tell us a lot.

Trying to think positive...

Bridge-Bhoy wrote:

The fact of the matter is we are a weaker team than the 10th place finish team of last year, which is pretty worrying considering almost all our direct rivals have added great quality (Roma apart).

That defeat hurts a lot, but there is plenty of playing time left, i doubt Salzburg will have what it takes to get more points than us in the remianing 5 games.

We need to beat Levski before going into the Villareal double header or we will surley leave ourselves in a near impossible situation.

The way we want things to happen is for Villareal to beat everybody besides us and maybe we can squeeze 2nd place in the group, which after all, would be mission accomplished, but 3 points are a must away to Levski.

Fiorentina didnt add any quality players?!

Cesari Natali, Marco Marchioni, Lorenzo De Silvestri & Cristiano Zanetti to replace Felipe Melo.

Much more than we have done.

A disaster, if you ask me. We lost against a weaker opposition, and that is enough to make me lable this as a disaster.

However, I think we need to settle for us being a "not so great" team. People got carried away after the first few games, but now we have lost a few and we are back to reality. We have a weaker team this year, but more games. You do the maths...


Forza Lazio!

Glad I missed this excuse for a game. I saw Foggia had scored on Teletext (backward technology but useful!) and thought we were on our way. I couldn't believe (well, thinking about it actually the fact we made two stupid errors is actually very believable) seeing the final sucker punches when I checked later. If we start to struggle to get results or performances and start making these idiotic errors (which are forgivable, as long as they don't become as regular as last season) then we are seriously screwed.
But as ever we have to move on, games coming thick and fast now...

Ed wrote:

Glad I missed this excuse for a game. I saw Foggia had scored on Teletext (backward technology but useful!) and thought we were on our way. I couldn't believe (well, thinking about it actually the fact we made two stupid errors is actually very believable) seeing the final sucker punches when I checked later. If we start to struggle to get results or performances and start making these idiotic errors (which are forgivable, as long as they don't become as regular as last season) then we are seriously screwed.
But as ever we have to move on, games coming thick and fast now...

I used Teletext as well and like you was glad to have missed the game. They showed Athletico Bilbao instead so I thought miss the entire lot and check when all the games had finished. Looked at the score and turned it off. What a joke. Checked the highlights and match reports and we made errors in defence. If it was not anything but. We got to start picking it up now. The only good thing to come out of this is that the players must surely recognise that they can not have a lackadaisal attitude. Simply turning up and having a half an effort and everything will be roses.

compromising! ...i can't believe what is happening with Lazio...i watch Salzburg many times this year and i think that Salzburg is the worst team in the European League and we lost at home...
i find one most responsibile for that - Lotito! whole world was saying the Lazio need at least one new very good defender and one center creative midfielder, and Lotito was blind for that.(cheap ass)
Rozenhal - out (no new one)
Pandev - out (Cruz, who i think is for Serie C)
Ledesma - out (no new, just some old waste who is in Lazio since maybe 1995 and no from all Lazio coach in the past think that he was good for Lazio until now)
Eliseu - (just LOL)
Lazio is much weaker from the last season. and our new best players: Kolarov and Muslera will go away under Lotito's managment!

also another think in this mach is that we play just defence at 1-0, even we play at home...- Balardini mistake.

I hate the way we just turned around, took off our shorts and bent over for red bull, cause that is what we did! played well for 15mins and then what? nothing! I blame just Ballardini for the loss. He should have tried to close the game when we had the momentum after Foggia's goal, put some more pressure on them, instead he tries to keep the result and pulls out one of our (in this game not usefeull ) attackers? now that is a tactical mistake that cost us the game. Bizzari's and Cribari's mistakes are just a result of Red Bull pushing us into our penalty box. It took them only 3-5 seconds to go from theri penalty box to ours and it took us a lot more to do it the hole game. Even in the first half they played better and had more ideas how to score than us. A team that plays defensive deserves to lose. I'm affraid Balaa is the same level coach as Rossi and will achieve nothing .. hope i'm wrong. and why put Bizzari in and no go with Muslera ? He should try Bizzari in the coppa......... any ways I'm pissed of at Zarate and Cruz also - Cruz went twice on a good chance and just passed the ball to their gk...well it's not buffon or some other good gk man just kick the freacking ball as hard as you can and hope for the best but just DON'T PASS IT to the gk! Zarate still hoping to be the one man team, still not passing not to mention he missed the same chances as Cruz. Both of them are pretending to be classy strikes - well prove it or hit the bench! Matuzalem and Baronio lost in the midfield, had some good moments but that was it. they are supposed to help the def but they got just run over almost evey time red bull attacked.

only good words i can say go to Diakite! Well don mate. Keep it up! Lichti good also. Radu ok in defense - nothing in attack. Foggia ... i just wander when our new mister will finaly see he can't afford to keep him at the bench cause he is the only one that plays with passion and spirit.

Bizzarri was arguably the best goalkeeper in Serie A last year; one mistake does not make a goalkeeper selection poor. He could very easily be our number one ahead of Muslera on ability and experience and he wasn't even 100% at fault for that goal so to start point fingers at Ballardini for that selection seems uber harsh.

Ballardini is not a defensive coach but when you have a poor defensve unit, you have to play defensively. Maybe defending a one goal lead was a bad decision but it worked against Inter, Atalanta and Chievo so I'm struggling to understand the criticism now.

Our problem last year, more often than not, was getting that one goal lead and when we had it, we often threw it away. A 75% win rate at that tactic so far is good enough for me.

Its difficult to know exactly what to take from last nights match this early in the season. We were unlucky of course, but we brought that bad luck on ourselfs through a few moments of madness. True, as a whole we have done well so far. Heres the problem as I see it though, playing defensively is fine to a point but it invites more pressure, more pressure on our frail backline, can we handle this in the long term?

Foggia though showed why he should be at the very front of Ballardini's plans, a true offensive threat thats gives our attack variety.

This will not be a popular thing to say but I do not think that this current Lazio squad has either the quality or the depth to play successfully in both Serie A and the Europa League.

Personally, I would rather Lazio concentrated their efforts on Serie A and a successful defence of the Coppa Italia rather than trying to bust a gut in the "Thursday Cup". I know there are some decent teams in the Europa League but it is not the Champoins League and I don't want the team distracted from their efforts in either the league or the Coppa Italia. It is in these competitions that I think our priorities should lay this season. I want to see Lazio put in a decent league campaign which I do think is possible but fighting on two fronts may well prove too much.

Its not being defeatist.....just realistic.

I do not agree with your logic Lazioscot.

In my view we struggled long and hard for Europa League qualification, and having finally done so, why should we treat it as secondary only so we can again struggle in the league to gain qualification to Europa League (qualifying for CL is not realistic this season as it wasn't last year).
This is a circle that needs to be broken. "Thursday cup" as you call it can bring us a pretty penny (it already has) and it can be perceived as leverage to keep some want-away players who crave European games, as well as a magnet for perspective players seeking a competitive club.
Just like in business, if you don't continually do better and better you're doomed to stagnate and eventually fail.

On the fact we lack depth and (certain) quality I can agree with you.

Lazioscot wrote:

This will not be a popular thing to say but I do not think that this current Lazio squad has either the quality or the depth to play successfully in both Serie A and the Europa League.

Personally, I would rather Lazio concentrated their efforts on Serie A and a successful defence of the Coppa Italia rather than trying to bust a gut in the "Thursday Cup". I know there are some decent teams in the Europa League but it is not the Champoins League and I don't want the team distracted from their efforts in either the league or the Coppa Italia. It is in these competitions that I think our priorities should lay this season. I want to see Lazio put in a decent league campaign which I do think is possible but fighting on two fronts may well prove too much.

Its not being defeatist.....just realistic.

I am with you. I think it is very difficult for Lazio to be successful in 3 competition's with this current squad. There's no depth on the bench. Plus like I said with no Ledsma, Pandev or Rozehnal Lazio is a lot weaker then last season. Lazio have an up hill battle now to pass to the next round of Europa League. I want Lazio to do really good in Serie A this season but to be honest I think they will finish between 7th-10th place. Plus the Europa League they won't win with this current squad. Lazio walked around for most of the match yesterday. Shows me the players did not give 100% and some might not care. Maybe if it was the Champions League they would of played harder and with more heart. Lazio should of killed them. Especially playing at home. Lotito better open his wallet and buy some good players in Jan. He thinks the Less he spends the better the club will do because they finished 3rd a few years ago. This is not true. To do good in all competition's you need a lot of depth especially when there are injuries. Now Lazio play Catania away which will be very difficult because now Catania is desperate to win plus Lazio don't play good there. I will keep my fingers crossed to see the team that played against Juventus and should of won.

The Europa League for me is a must.We earned our spot so its best not to brushed aside like we dont care(thats how it seemed last night though).Serie a is a must as is the Coppa but with are current squad it does'nt look all that likely.

Were just going to have to take each day as it comes.Its not gonna be easy,but since when was anything easy???

FORZA LAZIO ALL THE WAY

NON MOLLARE MAI

We lost this game because of two (stupid) personal mistakes. This is a verry bad result for us. We have to win two times against Sofia and the other time against Salzburg and hope we could get a point from Villareal. If we'll lose the game against Sofia it's as good as certain we won't get to the next round.

Caxi wrote:

Bizzarri was arguably the best goalkeeper in Serie A last year; one mistake does not make a goalkeeper selection poor. He could very easily be our number one ahead of Muslera on ability and experience and he wasn't even 100% at fault for that goal so to start point fingers at Ballardini for that selection seems uber harsh.

I totally agree regarding Ballardini but in my opinion that first goal was a bit of a blunder from Bizzarri. I do not know if it was just a communication breakdown but he surely should have let Diakite take care of the situation, I think.

Frist goal is Bizzari's fault - he should stay at goal and let Dia handle the situation, and you can't rush and jump over 3 players and hope for the best, plus he tried to catch the ball instead of punching it away. Don't get the impression I don't like Bizzari but this goal is his fault

@Caxi - man do you really think that defensive tactic worked against Inter? Inter totally dominated us and if it wasn't for Nando and Eto'o s miss we were not going to be even close to that super cup. I didn't watch the games against Atalanta and Chievo but I'm pretty sure they had atleast 1 situation to score against us and it was either Muslera or something else that prevented them of doing it. I've never liked us playin defensively and I've always expressed it in this forum. If we had taken control of the game we could win against RB easily but we just handed the game on a silver plate for them.

Also I think in important matches you stick with your original Gk not the new guy no matter how experienced he is - he just has no serious games with the defense and he doesn't know how the defenders play under real pressure, cause friendlies do no suply the pressure of seria a or league europe games. If you want to test someone you do it in the coppa IMO.

Another thing that annoyed me was our lack of physical power after the 70th minute or so. We just didn't have the air to chase their players.

I can't say it's Bizzarri's fault because I've looked at the incident over and over again and it was an easy catch. It's always better to diffuse the danger than let balls hang in the air like that so I can understand Albano coming out. Probably just miscommunication.

And as for Inter, the tactic worked because we held on and won. I can't call any tactic that wins you a game a failure. It would be easy enough to argue that our tacic against Salzburg was perfect, but we made two mistakes or that our tactic against Juve would have been perfect but for the disallowed goal. At the end of the day, both sides won fair (ok, maybe not) and square and we got it wrong.