Lazio, eternal let-downs

Lazio needn't look for reasons behind their downturn, argues Edo Dalmonte, they've just reverted to normal.
For a team that has disappointed just about everyone this season, Lazio have sure been entertaining.
There was reportedly a six-man brawl in training last week, which came just after the Stadio Olimpico was closed for two games for racist chants, because of the Curva Nord. The players are at each other’s throats, and that’s when they’re not busy explaining themselves to the Ultras at Formello.
Even worse, actual fans are disillusioned, whilst the manager Stefano Pioli has seemingly turned back into a frog, and is accused of being stubborn and unable to motivate his players.
Oh, and the Aquile are owned by Claudio Lotito, who has been throwing his weight around at Federation level, as if Rome and Salerno weren’t somehow enough for him.

What’s so galling is that there’s a good team in there somewhere. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has been a revelation, Keita Balde Diao has shown further glimpses of good play, and Danilo Cataldi is fighting for a starting spot week in, week out, something fans hope 20-year-old keeper Guido Guerrieri will be doing in the near future.
Lazio have also been unlucky with injuries, which have deprived them of the likes of Filip Djordjevic, Lucas Biglia and, even more painfully, Stefan de Vrij. The Dutchman’s January replacement, Milan Bisevac, hurt himself before the commentator could even call out his name for the first time. Ouch.
But how on earth does one explain such a sudden decline? From Champions League football to being thumped 4-0 by Chievo and 5-0 by Napoli, from scoring a club-record 71 Serie A goals to going winless for two months, something in the machine has broken down.
Or was it broken to begin with? Lazio did, after all, show up for Matchday 1 with the joint-youngest team in the league along with Carpi. The summer signings of Ricardo Kishna, Wesley Hoedt and Milinkovic-Savic were clever and full of value, but they were hardly going to give the team an instant shot in the arm.
It is increasingly apparent that Lazio have simply regressed to the mean. Federico Marchetti has gone back to making mistakes, whilst the defence has unearthed its late-Petkovic awfulness, matched only by Miroslav Klose’s ageing legs (he netted 15 last year) and Felipe Anderson’s inconsistency.
Last year, Lazio could count on Stefano Mauri coming on and just setting games alight. This season, a sports hernia pretty much did for him early on, though Pioli also hinted that there is a group of players that is opposed to his tenure, which would explain Mauri’s absence.
Though managers have come and gone, a lot of this likely comes down to one man. Claudio Lotito has been the one constant at the Olimpico in the last 12 years.
To his credit, he’s helped dig Lazio out of the ruinous debt Sergio Cragnotti lumbered it with, to the point that the club ended the 2014-2015 exercise in the black, unlike most of Serie A. He’s been a shrewd investor, bringing in players like Klose, Anderson, Mauri, Senad Lulic, Libor Kozak and many others on cheap deals. Gradually, Lazio have been able to afford bigger contracts (Biglia, Candreva, De Vrij) and won the Coppa Italia two seasons ago.
But is Lotito being ambitious enough? Fans have grown disenchanted with a side that never seems to want to build on its success. Lotito has been in power for 12 years now, and investing in a lot of youth wasn’t everyone’s way of preparing for the Champions League qualifiers, in which Lazio were embarrassed 3-1 by Bayer Leverkusen.
The Bianconcelesti’s owner is a poor man-manager, too. Instead of selling his bargains for a profit, he’s often argued with wantaways, eventually sitting them for long spells (just ask Goran Pandev). Lotito was hardly helpful during Lazio’s autumn anxiety either. Calling for a ritiro and telling the players to “show some balls” is hardly innovative.
Could this lack of ambition be affecting the players? It’s possible. It has certainly affected the fans, which would explain why the Olimpico has been emptier than usual this season.
Does Lotito plan to take the club places? Hopeful fans (the few that are left) point to the increasing wage bill, and argue that the young players of today could be the stars of tomorrow (buying from the Eredivisie is never a bad idea), and that winning the Europa League could wipe away a lot of the tears. The cynics wonder whether Lotito isn’t just in it for the prestige, and that the club isn’t just due another rebuild.
What’s depressing is, they could both be right.