27.04.2024 Lazio vs Verona Serie A
by Giorgio BICOCCHI
Only once had Sarri derogated from his inflexible fundamentalism: at the end of the last Lazio-Genoa match by simultaneously fielding Immobile and Castellanos on the pitch. An impromptu experiment, which lasted only a fraction of the match (which also ended badly, as you will remember…). Well, at the end of the match Sarri rejected that attempt. He would never do it again.
Since then, if an outsider left, a permanent counterpart would take over. Ditto in attack: if Ciro goes out, Taty comes in. Or viceversa. Same in the middle of the pitch: three midfielders started and three finished the match. There was no room for exceptions, artifices, tests.
This is why when Tudor fielded Taty, Luis Alberto, Pedro, Felipe, Zaccagni, Kamada and Guendouzi on the pitch at the same time in the second half, we understood that a bit of madness – in this ball too often caged by formations and respect for positions in pitch – is damned useful, at times, to get to the bottom of complex matches like those against Verona, bringing them to your side.
And perhaps this is also what condemned Sarri to his third year on our bench: not having given unpredictability and a pinch of madness to his Lazio. And this routine – in training and in matches – must have weakened the players too. Because then the ball – often – is pure madness. Like when Tudor asked Felipe and the returning Zaccagni to run at full flank and Kamada to recycle himself as a raider, in attack, and as a midfielder, in the retreats. In short, Tudor’s chameleonic Lazio was born: Fascetti, in his time, called it an “organised casino”. This is certainly an exaggerated meaning for the current Lazio but the data is there: five championship matches and four victories for 12 points. It is also thanks to this streak of madness and contempt for schemes and positions defined at the table that Lazio has carved out a season finale with complete meaning…
