Hard To Explain

By: cathal | January 25th, 2009

There’s no easy way of saying it; we were embarrassed today. Credit must be given to Cagliari though, they were impressive and fully deserved the win. We can harp on about bad luck until we are blue in the face but ultimately, we were one big, shambolic disaster and we got what we deserved. It is difficult to pinpoint what went wrong exactly and there can be no excuses for a 4-1 hammering but there were factors that contributed to such a loss. The players lacked any spark, desire or motivation from the off and perhaps some of this is a result of having to blow much of our energy on overcoming Torino midweek. There are many adjectives that could be used to describe Lazio today, some of them not so pleasant but lethargic is certainly one. However, when you’re defence concedes four goals in a single half through lapses in concentration and individual errors then you have a bigger problem on your hands.

Rossi left Siviglia out because Sebastiano was not match fit. That’s a fair decision, no point risking him when there’s a tough schedule ahead. However, Delio has a tendency to choose a left centre-back and a right centre-back in his team as I have previously stated in the past. Rozehnal and Cribari are left centre-backs and David got the nod, that’s Delio’s choice. The only fit right centre-back is Diakite so no option there. However, this is Rossi’s mindset and it’s difficult to see why he wouldn’t just go against his ethics and shove David and Emilson on from the start and let their experience deal with Acquafresca’s lack of it. Maybe he felt Mobido’s physicality would give the Cagliari forward problems. It didn’t. I hope Delio just finds a back four and sticks with it. How long have I been saying that for?

Allegri, the boss of the Sardinians sprung a surprise and set out a more attacking stall than anyone expected. That was a ballsy call but man, did it pay dividends for them. We may have been underprepared, we may have been clueless to their formation but it shouldn’t matter, we must have a defence that can cope with tactical changes. I know it’s only one game and I know it was a capitulation, Lazio caving in on Lazio but it’s not like our defence has been bulletproof all season. In the summer, Lotito spent much of the transfer budget securing Rozehnal and Radu permanently. Now, in January, it is still blatantly apparent that our backline is not of the standard of a team chasing Europe but even worse than that, we have no money to reinforce. Cagliari have cracked us and shown that if you attack us like we attack other teams then we can be outscored. Delio needs to sort this, he needs to tighten us up, make us compact and he has little time to achieve that.

Today was upsetting and it’s clear where the team is weakest but we have to make do with what we’ve got and we will. There’s no need to let this become the point where our season began to freefall. Everything was going so well until today but it’s one game and it only takes one game to get back on track, such is football. The most we can do now is have faith in president, coach and squad. Difficult I know but we have to try. Forza Lazio!

Highlights:

Match Photos: http://www.corrieredellosport.it/Fotogallery/Serie%20A/9405/0/Figuraccia%20Lazio:%20il%20Cagliari%20passeggia%20all’Olimpico

PS. Much happened in this game that I didn’t cover in the recap. Tommaso was tearful, Firmani was dismissed from the bench for being all too vocal and there were two missed penalties. I hope the highlights and pictures enlighten you. I personally can’t view them due to a rather broken computer but if you have any queries on any incidents, please feel free to post them in the comments section.