The Man Behind The Mask

By: cathal | October 11th, 2008

Looking ahead to the Bologna tie next weekend, the return of Rocchi will probably be the main talking point. However, I am eagerly anticipating the return of another Lazio player; Emilson Cribari.

Why? Well the man renowned as much for that mask as his playing ability had a tremendous game against Fiorentina before his early substitution in Turin (once again, somebody bust open his face). Having spent a lot of the pre-season out injured, he has endured luck as awful as Tommaso’s but I believe a first team return for Emilson is critical. Sure, he had a shocker of a season last year but so did the squad as a whole and we must not forget how instrumental he was in 2006-2007. Not only that, but the Rozehnal-Siviglia partnership has looked shaky at times and perhaps the addition of Cribari to the backline will help steady the ship. We will have to wait and see with that one.

However, it is not just his defensive capabilities that gets me going. A large part of my admiration for him is due to his attitude. Firstly, there was the fractured cheekbone incident. Expected to be out for two months after suffering the blow against Dinamo Bucharest in Champion’s League qualifcation, he came back two weeks later and helped put us into the group stages. Fantastic. Takes a certain attitude to make a sacrifice like that. The guy also talks the talk; he seems to know all the right things to say in order to please us fans. He admitted there were troubles in the Lazio camp last season but he was quick to praise the current bunch whilst expressing the need to be humble. He also maintained that he wishes to stay at Lazio until 2015! The guy appears to adore this club and what better way to show it than to have a dig at our biggest rivals. He boasted that we are a better side than Roma at present. It wasn’t the sort of remark that could come back to bite us in the bum but a fair comment based on the fact we were top of the table at the time. During the summer, he stated that he would sign a contract without asking for more money or a guaranteed spot in the first team. Unlike some, eh? He also said he has an ambition to be captain of Lazio one day. Whether this occurs or not is immaterial to me; at least he demonstrates the kind of drive needed to take this club forward.

I think that mentality is excellent and I would hope his presence on the pitch would help spread that passion to the rest of the squad. He may never be the world’s best defender but I would love to see him at this club for many years to come. At the end of the day, how can you not appreciate someone who can make a mask look that good?

Lichtsteiner, Rozehnal and Carrizo all featured for their national teams today. From what I have managed to gather so far, all of them had solid games. Hopefully they have emerged fit and well.