Serie A: LAZIO-FIORENTINA, Wednesday, 24-9-08

I am looking forward to this game especially.

I hope tomorrow we will finally get some useful answers to where this Lazio actually stands. As I already stated in another post that was deleted due to the forum breakdown, I think the initial wins at Cagliari and in the home debut against Sampdoria created a strange atmosphere. Certainly we didn´t play well enough in those games to merit such huge expectations. I didn´t like the words from neither our own fans (also in this forum), Rossi and the players and of course to no surprise Lotito. Obviously we´re all happy that seemingly there is a more positive atmosphere around the team, but certain words should not be shared in public before you have actually won something. Not after a good but not too convincing win at Cagliari. This is not our style and should be left to the other team of the city.

What we do know is that our attack looks very promising. That is even if I also believe Zaraté should be allowed to work in "peace" rather than be compared to Messi every single day. Ok, maybe that´s life at a big club like Lazio and more importantly in an important city like Rome, but maybe it would be wise to protect him a little bit rather than putting further pressure on a player who was hardly even considered a starter in preseason. (strangely so)

Apart from the attack, I think the team still has a lot to proove. Loosing at Milan is not much of a problem. That is even if our limits were exposed quite a lot in my opinion. Fiorentina is a different matter and at home in Olimpico we must present ourselves if this Lazio is to compete for anything in a Serie A where many of the traditional mid table teams look stronger and more powerful than in a long time. They are a strong side and I´m curious to see if our midfield is able to keep possesion and take off pressure from a defence that so far haven´t looked very convincing. I think that aspect is key to this Lazio team, since we are now playing in a different way compared to last season, without real tacklers in the midfield. I think we failed at that against Milan, at least in the important part of the game when everything was decided.

According to reports Foggia could be preferred ahead of Mauri. Stefano was terrible at Milan, so that change is inevitable to most people. However, it seems as if Rossi doesn´t consider Foggia a trequartista, so with him in the line-up, we could also see a change in tactical scheme. Most likely to a 4-3-2-1 with Foggia and Pandev just behind Zaratè (or Makinwa - some reports actually suggest he could start). I think this could be exciting, as I expect that´s the tactical formation Rossi has in mind when Rocchi is ready to play very soon.

Other than that it seems as if Radu, Cribari and De Silvestri could play as well. However, it must be said that Lichtsteiner and Rozehnal are still "favourites" to start the game ahead of De Silvestri and Cribari, whereas it seems more likely that Radu will take Kolarovs spot. Many doubts about how the defence will look. Although they committed mistakes at Milan, I think it would be wise to hang on to at least Rozehnal and Lichtsteiner also in order to give our weakest line in the team a bit continuity.

AVANTI LAZIO

players for the Fiorentina match :

5)Brocchi, 1)Carrizo, 25)Cribari, 29)De Silvestri, 87)Diakite, 17)Foggia, 3)Kolarov, 24)Ledesma, 2)Lichtsteiner, 26)Makinwa, 68)Manfredini, 8)Matuzalem, 11)Mauri, 23)Meghni, 86)Muslera, 19)Pandev, 32)Radu, 22)Rozehnal, 13)Siviglia, 10)Zarate.

i must say that Matuzalem should play more offensive like AMC because he has good dribbling,speed,pass and long shots...he is 3times better than Mauri

rai international broadcasting for sure. 20.30 ora italiana!

great news for me!

Is rosse somehow trying to tell us or convince us that our best defender is called Siviglia, no offence to him, but i think delio has to get checked.

one more thing, what are people thinking about zauri reception, i hope the crowd shows some respect.

Hi! If i will see Makinwa and Mauri in the starting line-up then i think its Rossi who leave before Angelotti. Even when we were 4-1 down Foggia made some good crosses and gave great passes. Unfortunately on pass was ment to Mauri in the box but everyone saw this is the new Mauri(the smelling as on).
With the front-line Foggia-Zarate-Pandev we will have chances....not like with ACM derrible long passes to nowhere.
And i wouldt blame the defence...the midfield was so weak that the defence couldn react so quickly. But i would but De Silvestri in.
Anyway i go for the 3 points. If 0 points stay in Rome then it seems the deja-vu to last year.
NON MOLLARE MAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FORZA LAZIO!!!!!

I think changing too much is a very serious danger to the harmony and the positive feeling that is sorrounding the team. We need to build some kind of a security, but saying that I am not suggesting we should keep our starting XI as the one against Milan, some changes need to be done. I have seen Siviglia as the major weak point in our team, and I think his cooperation with Rozenhal did not work very well so far. I understand that Rossi wants an experienced player, but I would go for a change there before it is too late to break the CB-duo. I dont know how to form the back-line, maybe Radu - Rozenhal, or Crib? Even giving Diakite a chance is preferred by me before Siviglia.. The next position that needs revision is the Mauri spot. I dont really see what Rossi uses him for, even though I know he can contribute quite a lot when he is in form. Unfortunately it is more than a year ago a saw an impressive game by Mauri. A tridente with Foggia - Pandev - Zarate is probably the one I would go for at the moment, but the major problem is that Foggia is not very keen on defending and therefore we will need a stronger midfielder than Matuzalem to assist Ledesma and Brocchi (When is Dabo back?). Can this be the reason we see Mauri starting game after game?
tonight we play at home and therefore we should be able to play a bit more offensiveley and then the trio that i presented above should work fine. But in the long run a balanced solution must be found. Zarate - Rocchi - Pandev seem harmonic to me since Zarate is working his ass off defensiveley as well, and Pandev has really developed that part of his game as well..
Lichty had a pretty poor game against Milan, even though it was not solely his own fault as i saw him being left alone quite a few times. He should probably be given more chances, but if he feels a little bit tired and fatigued LDS should be sent in as we know he will definetely be able to fill the RB without any problems. Kolarov should continue as LB as I think he had a pretty good games so far and

We have to keep in mind that for some of the players, there have been quite a few games recently (national team occurances as well as playing 90 minutes each game this season). Maybe that will lead to a few changes, ,but as a whole I think we should stick with a XI that is pretty similar to the ones that have started so far this season. Then when Rocchi is back I think we will see what our standard XI will be this year.

Almost everyone got a bit too enthusiastic after the two opening games and Rossi together with the players were just not ready enough to face Milan. In an away game like that we should rely on a strong defence and then hope for counters. I think the first part, strong defence, was were we lacked and after their lucky 1-0 and us opening up for an equaliser set the standards for the rest of that game. No team can face Milan, specially not at San Siro, and think that they can outplay Milan. Bologna did not win like that, neither did Genoa at home. Anyway, we have to leave that behind us and show viola tonight that we are a team that will be up there, but at least I am not expecting a top 4 finish for us this season. With a bit of humbleness the game tonight could turn out good for us...

Fiorentina is serious team, but frankly I don't think that they are good enough to defeat us.
I am saying that only if our team doesn’t beat himself with stupid blunders and poor attitude.

I think our major problems are in the middle, because neither Matuzalem, neither Ledesma are consistent till now. We are playing very chaotically and with no ideas at all in this department and most of our ,,defense'' problems coming exactly from there. The defense starts from the middle....
Also we loosing the initiative very easy and allow the opponents to play and create in our field.
So far(against Cagliari, Samp) I didn't see many rough mistakes from our defense, in fact in some occasions players like Rozehnal , Lichtsteiner were the last barrier and saved our goal. But I did see very inconsistent midfield with large gaps, inefficient in holding the ball and feeding our attack with good balls.
I think that is what we lacking and we need to find the solution, because against teams like Cagliari and Sampdoria we can compensate, but it is obvious that against teams like Milan that is very difficult.
Forza....!

i prefer starting with mourad ahead of mauri and foggia ahead of brocchi !

flurffmeister wrote:

i prefer starting with mourad ahead of mauri and foggia ahead of brocchi !

it is a very attacking line-up with our defense I don't think we can afford it.. just replace Mauri with Foggia and see what happens

Gimme links links links links....

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/sep23r.html

When did Fiorentina buy our players [look at the team sheet at the bottom], unless it's been edited by now

flurffmeister wrote:

i prefer starting with mourad ahead of mauri and foggia ahead of brocchi !

If we do that then we'll have no muscle in the midfield and no way of limitng their creative players.

Hey guys just wondering if there are any links for the game.
Thank u in advance.

bet365, just make an account and you can follow the game there.

FORZA LAZIO!!!!

Is the quality good on bet365?

DAAAAJE LAZIO!!!

flurffmeister wrote:

i prefer starting with mourad ahead of mauri and foggia ahead of brocchi !

this could be more creative for attack... but we need a quality DM player, for covering the depend...

NON MOLLARE MAI!!!

Skenderbeu wrote:

Is the quality good on bet365?

DAAAAJE LAZIO!!!

Everytime I have watched a game at bet365 it has been good. The only pain is that I cannot create a larger screen than the one that they provide, which is not very large...

Cash wrote:

Skenderbeu wrote:

Is the quality good on bet365?

DAAAAJE LAZIO!!!

Everytime I have watched a game at bet365 it has been good. The only pain is that I cannot create a larger screen than the one that they provide, which is not very large...

just put the audio off at bet365, and get the live radio link ... like that you will see 10 sec in advance what the radio commentator has to shout about

pazke wrote:

Cash wrote:

Skenderbeu wrote:

Is the quality good on bet365?

DAAAAJE LAZIO!!!

Everytime I have watched a game at bet365 it has been good. The only pain is that I cannot create a larger screen than the one that they provide, which is not very large...

just put the audio off at bet365, and get the live radio link ... like that you will see 10 sec in advance what the radio commentator has to shout about

Okej, Grazie boys! Forza

I thought the bet365 streams have been poor of late but there you go. I used it all last year

Sturges wrote:

I thought the bet365 streams have been poor of late but there you go. I used it all last year

it show all of our games or only important?

Javier erfi Lopez wrote:

Sturges wrote:

I thought the bet365 streams have been poor of late but there you go. I used it all last year

it show all of our games or only important?

Usually important, Roma, Inter, Milan and Juve get most of the streams. They have the evening kicks offs on a weekend and they chose the best I think 2 games from the Sunday 2pm (UK Time) games, usually dont include us

they show games every now and then,as unibet...tonightthey stream, they also do on sunday

Goal.com wrote:

24/09/2008 14:21
D’Amico Believes La Viola Trump Lazio
Former Lazio great Vincenzo D’Amico has spoken about Wednesday's match between Lazio and Fiorentina, insisting that the capital club are inferior to La Viola...
»Comments (1) Print This Story Send To A Friend Contact Us galleria zoom On Wednesday evening, the mouthwatering Serie A clash between Lazio and Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico should be a dramatic and important affair. Lazio will be looking to put their 4-1 thrashing by Milan behind them with a good result against the Viola, while Fiorentina will hope to continue their surge up the table by getting at least a point against the Bioncocelesti.

Commenting on the duel between these two traditional an Italian powerhouses is none other then former Lazio legend Vincenzo D’Amico.

Speaking to Giornale di Toscana, the television football pundit said, “Tonight will be difficult for us. The result at the San Siro shows us that the quality of the squad is still inferior to the greats.

“Fiorentina, however, has closed the gap on the big teams, having done well last season. Now that they have Gilardino, they have made another jump in quality.”

Lazio will be hoping that D’Amico’s opinions are misguided and that their team can improve on the impressive start to this campaign. Tonight will see Mauro Zarate against Alberto Gilardino in the ultimate battle of firepower. May the best man win!

Peter Pedroncelli

Well I respectfully disagree on both matters. Gilardino is on form, but soon enough he'll slip back into mediocrity, and although the match in San Siro taught us a lesson it shouldn't be a merit of this team's performances in the future, rather a motivation to push even harder and fix the flaws.

Hour and a half until kick-off, I'll be watching the game live on TV

Forza!

I think Gilardino will realise his potential at Fiorentina. He did well at Milan when he was settled but he never broke into the first eleven as such.

But I agree that the Viola are not moving forward. They've strengthened the attack, but the defence has been weakened, so I expect 4th - 6th from them.