The Success and Failure of Last Season

I've decided to set up this topic as there is a very general theme that keeps recurring on the LF threads, that is a debate on who failed SS Lazio last season and who were the shining lights. A lot of people here have heaped praise on Rocchi and De Silvestri and have criticised other individuals, but what I want to know is, who do you feel let the club down and please explain why you feel this way and also who do you feel brought success to the club this year. In your replies, also indicate whether you feel this is a short-term or long-term problem in any issues that you raise. Thanks.

The idea of this topic is to set up a general debate on this issue without having the threads on specific players and transfers clogged up with people's opinions of last season.

Mailny the keeper issue (Ballota+Muslera), they werent up for this

Defense: backline probelms, i personallly prefer stendardo over sivilgia, i hope he fixes his problems with Rossi, and radu over zuari


Defence midfeild had a good run this season, mudingayi and ledesma did a great job



Wingers and attacking midfield: was a crisis Muari especially , meghni always injured and del nerrooo ??
wingers: vignaroli and manferdini, no comments

attack: superb, always we needed decent subs

And most of All injusries all over the season!!!



the medical stuff should be sackkeeddd '11111111

Nice thread, because you are right, the topic emerged everywhere in the forum.....

For me the failure of last season is very complicated and vast to discuss. For sure there are many reasons for the disaster.
We should start with this huge amount of injuries. I can’t remember how many consecutive games we have played with one, unchanged squad. And I am talking with the first squad.
Second reason I see in the thrifty mercato which Lotito accomplished. Just before Champions League….. It was not serious at all.
And at the third place I put the blame onto some players and our coach.

The players who disappointed: Manfedini , Siviglia , Zauri , Mudingay, Mauri, Muslera, Barone.
The players with average performance: Muttareli, Vignaroli, Balotta, Bianchy,Tare , Kolarov, Del Nero,Ledesma ,Rozehnal.
The players with big merits to be in Seria A again : Pandev , Rocchi , De Silvestri , Dabo , Behrami , Fyrmani.

As we can see the last group contains least number of people and this says almost everything for our past performance.
And don’t forget Rossi tactics, which at some points was very strange and inadequate.

Recently has been emerged some reports claiming that we had inner problems. I think it was obvious, with a view of so many clashes between Rossi, Lotito and our players.
The low spirit who was shown in couple of games, which I reckon was indicative. As such as against Genoa at Olimpico , Juventus in Torino , Siena in Rome and so on…
As I said at the beginning, these topic is endless and rehashed a lot.
This is my short view, now I think is more important to look forward and stop thinking for this miserable season. It is in the past for me, let bygones be bygones.

I think our biggest flaw was our loss of focus. After suffering nothing but injuries in the first half of the season, it seems that we decided to ensure our safety in the league, when, in reality, we could have pushed on and challenge Sampdoria and Udinese for a place in Europe. Instead, we blooded youngsters (which will serve us well next season) and concentrated almost wholly on the Coppa Italia, which was a ridiculous decision for me.

The defence was never consistent, partly because Rossi kept alternating our back 4, even with few injuries, Rossi did not seem to know his best back 4 and I don't know if he does now as I bet we would all pick a different defence. We have many good defenders, at least 6 or 7 solid defenders, but there's nobody great in the squad, De Silvestri is on the brink of greatness.

Our strikeforce lacked depth, although we would all agree that Rocchi and Pandev did tremendously well for us. Yes, Behrami was the outstanding midfielder, Ledesma did a good job as did Mudingayi and Dabo when called for. Firmani deputised with nothing but heart and soul.

None of us really kow if it is individual players or our coach who is at fault, but we all have faith in Rossi due to our 3rd place of 2 years ago. This season will determine who was responsible for last season.

I agree usampa that we need to move forward, but we also need to reflect on the past, otherwise, if it all goes wrong again, we'll be in disarray and will never be able to account for such failures.

Caxi wrote:

Firmani deputised with nothing but heart and soul.

The list of the best players was too short
But actually I consider him as very useful player. Dont forget his goal against Parma in very decisive and delicate moment for us.
I also think he is rather or less underrated from Rossi , but this belong to other discussion.

yes, Firmani is underrated, he gives his all and he is incredibly useful to have on the bench as long as he's happy to be there.

Lazio fans like him I think and he was definitely one of the better players of last season, despite his lack of time on the pitch.

I think c.testa may have said this, correct me if I'm wrong mate but he would be an ideal captain with more ability and I think that shone through the darkness of last season.

Last season's ups:
- Pandev&Rocchi - 30 goals in A together + more in cups
- De Silvestri, Radu&Kolarov - young and good
- Dabo&Ledesma - constant in the midfield
- Behrami - for the goal against Roma and all the dedication
- Lotito - strong on his position

Last season's downs:
- the GK - Muslera and Ballotta made a mess
- Cribari&Siviglia - just a bad season from our usually solid defenders
- Mauri&Meghni - invisible
- Mutarelli&Zauri - i expected more from players with their experience
- Behrami&Mudingayi - for the scandal they created
- Rossi - bad tactics in important games

We started with a bad mercato which left us without the needed depth to able to compete on three fronts.

A lot of injuries .. which you can blame the medical staff for .. at least partly .. but I also think that the lack of depth in the squad also meant that we rushed injured players back to early and also that some players had to play two matches a week .. and got worn down to the point that they got injured.

Rossi´s is to blame to some extent to .. favourising some players for example(I mean how many chances didn't Mauri get before he got benched?) must have hurt the spirit of those fighting to get into the team .. maybe that's some of the inner problems Cribari was talking about .. and also Rossis failure to rotate the squad .. even if Ledesma is better than Baronio it wouldn't have hurt if he had played Baronio every now and then .. instead we got an worn down Ledesma that only not performed badly but also got injured.

But above all I think the major problem was a lack of leadership .. Di Canio, Oddo, Peruzzi were all big personalities and leaders on the pitch .. last season we didn't have any clear leaders on the pitch .. Zauri might be a nice guy but lacks leadership skills in my opinion .. Rocchi is a better option .. he's a fighter but still not that clear leader .. firmani plays with his heart but is not a regular starter

A this in my eyes are very worying .. even if the mercato this far is looking promising .. I my eyes we only have brought in Rozenhal that has those leadership qualities I'm looking for .. soo even if Fernandez is a good player I would rather see us getting Pinzi .. Laziale and captain of Udine .. heart and leadership in one .. and I would also love to see Domizzi .. Laziale and captain of Napoli (isn't he??)

So please mr Lotito .. sign Pinzi, Domizzi, Russotto .. and I will be more than happy

I agree with you ClockworkOrange, leadership is certainly an issue and almost all of us agree that we don't have any great leaders, Rocchi is generally thought of as the best captaincy candidate we have, but you're right, Domizzi, Pinzi, even Rozehnal have the leadership qualities, the only problem is, they're newcomers.

it's a problem we need to sort, the best leader in our squad (Firmani) doesn't play and perhaps, and it's only a theory, perhaps the lack of leadership played some part in our inner problems.

Caxi wrote:

I agree with you ClockworkOrange, leadership is certainly an issue and almost all of us agree that we don't have any great leaders, Rocchi is generally thought of as the best captaincy candidate we have, but you're right, Domizzi, Pinzi, even Rozehnal have the leadership qualities, the only problem is, they're newcomers.

it's a problem we need to sort, the best leader in our squad (Firmani) doesn't play and perhaps, and it's only a theory, perhaps the lack of leadership played some part in our inner problems.

Yes I think that Peruzzi retiring left us without more than a stable first choice keeper .. I think he also was the teams "dad" which everyone listened to .. a natural leader which "rallied the troops before the battles" .. and we didn't have anyone that could step in and fill that role last season .. I remember Behrami telling how Di Canio used to inspire the team before the games .. when things are going well everything is going by itself .. but when things are going bad you need character to break the trend

But to evolve this a little bit I would say it was an combination of lack of leadership and some players/situations causing unrest in the squad

You can compare it to West Ham's situation two seasons back .. coming of an succesful season during which they overachived .. got of to a rough start and in the end needed to win away at ManU in the last game to save themselves from relegation

Their problem that season was (according to their coach) was a lack of experince/leadership and some players in the squad causing unrest .. so the solution was bringing in some experienced players with leadership skills and selling of those who though they were bigger than the team

Last season we had a lot of situations causing unrest in the squad and taking focus from the game .. Rocchi's contract negotiations that were dragging on forever .. Stendardo thinking he was bigger than the team .. Rossi's choice to field players that just wasn't delivering .. keep playing Cribari and leaving Rozenhal on the bench is a good example of what I'm talking about or keep playing ledesma over Baronio while he clearly was worn out is another .. it sends the wrong signals .. I mean why try to break into the first eleven when you never get a chance because the coach plays his favourites anyway

This season there aresome issues that are a little bit worrying .. we have a to big squad with players been told they are not wanted .. not a good situation at all .. a couple of contract negotiations with key players going on (Pandev/Ledesma) .. Lotito/Rossi better sort that out ASAP

Why the need for this topic? Last Season Didn`t Happen!!


Seriously there can`t be one player who didn`t let the flat vibes spoil their performance in a game.There was no buzz about the squad that lasted for a fortnight.The major culprits were Zauri and Mauri no excuses we expected players like these to lead by example.

Galles. wrote:

Why the need for this topic? Last Season Didn`t Happen!!


Seriously there can`t be one player who didn`t let the flat vibes spoil their performance in a game.There was no buzz about the squad that lasted for a fortnight.The major culprits were Zauri and Mauri no excuses we expected players like these to lead by example.

last season was a season all Lazio fans would like to forget. we were abysmal and we could all see that there was something majorly wrong with the team. the topic of last season's failures was rife throughout the forum but nobody wishes to dwell on the negatives for too longth, hence this thread is designed to debate the positives too. the laziale need to be assured that last years failings will be fixed in time for the new season, however, as none of us really know what exactly happened behind the scenes, it is difficult to be reassured.

in a desperate attempt to reassure ourselves, we should analyse the season passed so we can rest easy that positive changes are being made and all issues are being resolved. then we can look forward to winning the scudetto next season!

i think this is very negative topic whats gone is gone we have started a new season we won our first game 1-4 away!! even though we was behind in the match now we have already improved last year when we went behind i always fort the match wasa full gone conslisuion and to tell the truth when we went 1-0 on sunday i fort oh here we go again so i am looking foward to this season i think it will be a higly sucess full season and hopfuly we win both derbys


Forza Lazio
18

yea that's correct bud, if Firmani has the ideal attributes to captain this club but unfortunately isn't quite good enough to start each week.

I would be very sad and angry if he was sold though, as I read he was going to be switched for Torino's Barone. Barone might be one of the campioni del mondo, but a player like Firmani isn't someone you can buy, that passion comes only from being a laziale

FORZA-LAZIO1900 wrote:

i think this is very negative topic whats gone is gone we have started a new season we won our first game 1-4 away!! even though we was behind in the match now we have already improved last year when we went behind i always fort the match wasa full gone conslisuion and to tell the truth when we went 1-0 on sunday i fort oh here we go again so i am looking foward to this season i think it will be a higly sucess full season and hopfuly we win both derbys


Forza Lazio
18

Look when this topic was started.

I set up the topic because discussions regarding last season were breaking out all over forum and at the time it made sense to have one single topic devoted to the subject as some sections of the forum were being cluttered with posts appropriate to a topic like this and not other topics. In its context, it was neither a negative or positive topic but rather a critical debate on what members saw as an important issue. I call on the moderators to lock this topic if they deem it unnecessary now that the new season has begun.

Caxi wrote:

I set up the topic because discussions regarding last season were breaking out all over forum and at the time it made sense to have one single topic devoted to the subject as some sections of the forum were being cluttered with posts appropriate to a topic like this and not other topics. In its context, it was neither a negative or positive topic but rather a critical debate on what members saw as an important issue. I call on the moderators to lock this topic if they deem it unnecessary now that the new season has begun.

briefly:

1. goalkeeper total mess. we signed kolarov as a non UE and then we realized that carrizo had no italian relatives in piemonte, northern italy.

2. transfer campaign mess: we needed 3-4 players and the club signed 7-8 players with no excellent qualities or injured (people like vignaroli, artipoli, meghni, and so on ...)

3. delio rossi argued too much with mr. sabatini and lotito. sabatini quitted in september then he came back ... (what a mess)

4. dressing room huge problems between some young lads and some veterans.

5. lazio backbone wasn't ideal to struggle in serie a and CL bot competion.

6. back line injuries in aug/september: siviglia, diakite, cribari, artipoli, stendardo. all the CB were out. total mess.

6. supporters criticism. too much criticism and lack of support.
imho.

now everything is over: forza lazio! here we are once again, let's play, mate.
we have to think positive.