Grazie Goran

By: cathal | January 11th, 2009

Lazio managed to scrape past Reggina today thanks to a well-deserved hat-trick from that man Goran. It wasn’t as exciting a game as the 3-2 scoreline may suggest but there is plenty to talk about.

The most encouraging thing we can take from the game is the three points. It was a decent performance but not one that will strike fear into future opponents. Reggina were woeful and but for a poor penalty decision and poor defending on Diakite’s part, they wouldn’t have scored. They had absolutely no cutting edge in their play and the fact they managed to score is worrying.

Although I didn’t particulary agree with Rossi’s gameplan, I have to admit that it was sufficient. Rocchi was relatively lacklustre again but the tridente as a whole played excellently. Pandev’s three goals speaks for itself and Zarate had a fantastic game, he caused Reggina numerous problems and was instrumental in the majority of our attacks. The midfield of Meghni, Ledesma and Dabo was fairly unspectacular but solid. Mourad was not at his best today but he’s now had a run of good performances and certainly looks a better option than Mauri at this moment in time. It will be interesting to see if he keeps his place if and when ~~Methuselah~~ Matuzalem returns from injury.

The defence will cause Delio some concern. Rozehnal was fine but Mobido yet again made a mistake that cost us a goal. I still feel Rossi hasn’t decided on his first choice backline and he will have to do so quickly if this team is to go places. I thought both Radu and De Silvestri had good games but like Diakite, they are young and need time to develop further. The return of Lichsteiner will add some stability and I think it would be wise to reintroduce Cribari or perhaps Siviglia when fit. Perhaps Lotito will now enter the mercato for a defender but to be honest, I think we have capable defenders, it’s just about finding the right balance. Our defence is too fragile with all this chopping and changing.

Nevertheless, three points it is and we can now look forward to a tough encounter with Juve. There’s much to work on if we want to get a result next week but at least we’ve kickstarted the new year with a win. If any of you are fortunate enough to run into Goran this week, please shake his hand on my behalf. Forza Lazio!

I’ll find more in depth highlights when they become available, but for now, here’s the goals with some Guido talk: