Serie A, INTER-LAZIO, Sunday, 20-12-09

if somebody destroy lazialita in the field whithout doubt is ballardini,we was booring,yes our defence didnt look bad-but every defence with the 6 players(give the any kind of role to kolarov but he s a defence player)and two DM will look "solid-or good",only player who can keep the ball more than 10 sec in our team was meghni(and he was subs).baronio-mauri(balla s babyes)are just ghosts in the field.i understand if someone try to defend the result in last 25-30 min(or all second half)but i cant(and i dont want)to understand that all 90 min we defend 0-0 result(look our place in the serie-a).if just somebody scores against us once(game over-enough for them)than what,comments that our defence made just one mistake or they wasnt bad...until when?.better teams than us can not take the preasure of 90 min.to try to win game with one shoot(of kolarov)is the strategy of the little teams(its clear that balla never had a chance be leader of the big team)and we are not a little one.
sad,pathetic,play with baronio and mauri,keep in the bench foggia and meghni(except this one),try to create a middlefield player from kolarov(he s very good left wing),try to play with matu as a trequartista(he s great middlefield player)-in that position we have foggia.ballardini is our cancer,we came in position to be the most booring team for whatching,leave us and save us mr.ballardini

Nothing left to say. Boring, YES! I don't think we played bad, I just don't think we played well. Inter did not impress me, which makes me sad that we couldn't score...at least get the draw. I have seen Inter play quite a bit this year, because they're on tv a lot and if there was ever a time to beat / draw with Inter, it was yesterday...but we failed to do so and that has been the story of our season.

So, basically, we can't even beat a bad Inter or a bad bottow dweller.

Sucks!

Good defense and bad attacking are not unrelated in a poorly assembled team. The truth is that, sadly, Lazio has now recently switched to this strategy of play "Let's defend in the best possible way, then hopefully, eventually, somehow, we might even score".

Which is exactly the way many provincial teams that fear relegation play. Certainly it is boring. Hopefully will turn out to be effective, which, right now, is the only thing that matters to me.

doesnt look very effective..we will not survive with draws and narrow losses. Expecting a point away to Inter, in the poor state we are in, is maybe too much, but we need to start producing or we will fall behind. Next game against the communists will need to be a win...

Yeah..we need to beat the comunists. But we wont if we play with Mauri and Baronio, with Rocchi insolated somewhere .. with a Zarate who wouldnt pass and with Kolarov trying to score from 80 m.

I think we missed a player like Pandev a lot this match. With him, like in many other games this season, we would have been able to create some chances and maybe even score. Ledesma would have been nice to have in the midfield as well.

Apart from that, I think we played an ok game considering the choices Ballardini had. IMO we missed our best attacker (Zárate) and our two best midfielders (Matuzalem and Brocchi). Especially Matuzalem and Zárate are hard to replace if you want to play attacking football on Giuseppe Meazza. With a little bit of luck we could also have been rewarded a penalty.

I agree with all that Radu was outstanding. It's really nice to see him play football right now.

We need some changes in the squad, badly...

I'm afraid the season has now turned into survival mode. Do what it takes to survive. After that, we can talk about new players, a new plan of attack, new coach, etc.

We're 3 points ahead of the relegation zone. There is quite a bit of time to improve, but that goes for ever team, not just us.

Conn's post is dead on. Nothing to really add to it. Well said. Sad, but true.

I can't fathom why we ever reverted to a defensive style.

I can only assume Ballardini thinks it will be better in the long run and I half-heartedly understand that. It's not fun by any means but we are a team of attacking weapons, some Zarate magic, a mazy Foggia dribble, a sublime finish from Rocchi, the poacher nature of Cruz; these are elements of our game that have been missing all season long.

When confidence was high, we were on fire but that didn't last long. The system never changed, the formation did but ultimately, it has been a defensive style since day one; which goes against Ballardini's usual style and the style Rossi had imposed on us.

I don't think Pandev altered the style that much and I'd like to think Ledesma wasn't that integral.

Still, we are losing by fine margins. If some of our attackers start illustrating why they have their reputations, it might be enough to sneak draws in games like these, or wins against Bologna for example. With a few new additions, we can go even further...but one step at a time.

Not the best way to end 2009 but nothing to get particularly discouraged about in my opinion.

Caxi wrote:

I can't fathom why we ever reverted to a defensive style.

I can only assume Ballardini thinks it will be better in the long run and I half-heartedly understand that. It's not fun by any means but we are a team of attacking weapons, some Zarate magic, a mazy Foggia dribble, a sublime finish from Rocchi, the poacher nature of Cruz; these are elements of our game that have been missing all season long.

When confidence was high, we were on fire but that didn't last long. The system never changed, the formation did but ultimately, it has been a defensive style since day one; which goes against Ballardini's usual style and the style Rossi had imposed on us.

I don't think Pandev altered the style that much and I'd like to think Ledesma wasn't that integral.

Still, we are losing by fine margins. If some of our attackers start illustrating why they have their reputations, it might be enough to sneak draws in games like these, or wins against Bologna for example. With a few new additions, we can go even further...but one step at a time.

Not the best way to end 2009 but nothing to get particularly discouraged about in my opinion.

It comes down to the fact we have a midfield that many provinciali wouldn't even be proud of.

Some "Zarate magic" is all we have in terms of an attack threat. Rocchi's sublime finishing and Cruz' poached goals have always depended on being fed several quality chances from a midfield. We have NO creative influence from midfield. Maybe Matuzalem when he plays but that is not enough. Foggia, Mauri and Meghni are too ineffective to produce anything substantial.

Pandev and Ledesma were important. Players of their roles are quite rare if you want quality and even if we had sold them for decent sums, we would've found it tough to find their successors. As it stands, Pandev hasn't been repalced at all and Ledesma has been replaced in a half-assed fashion by Baronio (who to be fair has played better than I expected back in July, but still not good enough).

Ballardini has found a solid pairing in Radu-Stendardo, and I think that when the midfield focuses on adding further cover to the backline, we can maybe grind out the odd result. Trouble is, we need magic from a Kolarov or Zarate to score.

We are essentially doing what Lecce did last season, only difference is we maybe have a bit more quality in the 1 or 2 who can produce something special. Why are we playing like this??? Because this is how provincial clubs avoid the drop. And the management has built a largely provincial squad for the first team of the capital.

That's my pissed off 2 cents. Buon natale a tutti. May 2010 be a better year.

Right, but that makes no sense. At what point was there an executive decision taken to avoid relegation.

I would have thought this team had the quality to stay up regardless of tactics.

Caxi wrote:

Right, but that makes no sense. At what point was there an executive decision taken to avoid relegation.

I would have thought this team had the quality to stay up regardless of tactics.

Just an observation, since the last international break we have been even more defensive than previously.