Player Focus: Anderson Taking Chance to Light Up Lazio Ahead of the Festive Period

A Christmas light twinkling in blue and white. Felipe Anderson “illuminated Lazio and the night at San Siro,” wrote Il Corriere dello Sport in their player ratings. The Rome-based paper awarded him a 7.5. La Repubblica were more generous. Tis the season after all. They marked him up to 8. Indeed, the boy from Brazil sparkled against Inter on Sunday to earn a rating of 8.36 from WhoScored.com.

After little more than 90 seconds, Anderson, like a Christmas spirit, ghosted inside from the right and slipped unnoticed by Inter defenders into the box. Spotting the run, his teammate Stefan Radu delivered a low cross. It was to be the ninth Lazio have scored from this season in Serie A. No team has a better success rate. Anderson’s first touch with his left foot not only drew the sting out the ball, it bent it around and took out the Inter captain Andrea Ranocchia. Once beyond him, the backspin he'd put on it brought it back into his path to shoot past Samir Handanovic.

He was “uncatchable,” beamed La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Lethal.” Even more so in the manner with which he completed his brace, the first Anderson has scored since his arrival in Italy, a doppietta “worthy of one of the most prestigious stages in football,” argued Il Corriere della Sera. La Scala del Calcio.

Ranocchia, stepping inside Lazio’s half, had looked to play the ball up to Mauro Icardi. Imprecise, it was cut out by Lorik Cana. A tidy combination saw Marco Parolo next in possession. He flighted a short pass to Senad Lulic. Still high up the pitch, Ranocchia lost the header and Anderson, who had been following the play from a starting position outside his own penalty area, latched onto it and was gone with the wind.

Telemetrics at Lazio claim that their No.7 is the fastest player in Serie A. Faster than Jonathan Biabiany, the Parma winger who has been ruled out indefinitely with a heart problem. Faster than Victor Ibarbo, the Cagliari sprint-striker. Without the data in front of us, it is hard to verify Lazio’s assertion but between the move starting and finishing only 13 seconds elapsed. A number of them were also taken up by Anderson cutting back inside, taking on the backing off Juan Jesus and making up his mind - pass to the wide-open Stefano Mauri or go it alone. Expecting the former, Handanovic was caught flat-footed when Anderson instead opted for the latter, finishing with his right this time, a display of his ambidexterity.

“I dedicate the goals to my father,” he told Sky Italia afterwards. “It’s his birthday today. He asked me to score a goal. I scored two. I’m happy.” Full of confidence, Anderson continued to run at and take on Inter’s players, leading to large intakes of breath in the Curva Nord. He has both attempted [every 11.8 minutes] and completed [every 17.5 minutes] a dribble more often than any other player in Serie A this season. Only the in-demand Genoa No.10 Diego Perotti [10 vs Palermo] and the helter-skelter Roma forward Gervinho [9 vs Cesena] have pulled off more in a game than Anderson did in the 3-0 win against Atalanta [8] a weekend ago.

Twice he assisted Mauri in that game. The pink called him Lazio’s lampadina - their light bulb, someone capable of moments of pure inspiration and sheer genius. Away at Parma at the beginning of December, he had also helped his team overturn a first half deficit and then find the winner, popping up at the far post to clinch the points for the Aquile.

The only disappointment for Anderson on Sunday was the comeback Inter launched in the second half. Mateo Kovacic channelled Zinedine Zidane in the 2002 Champions League final, standing and watching the ball come down from the heavens and then volleying it into the roof of the net from outside the area. Another 21-year-old like Anderson, both players featured on the front page of Monday's Corriere dello Sport with the headline: Bimbi d’Oro - the Golden Boys. The night belonged to them even if the older Rodrigo Palacio, who has been ageing before our eyes this season, got his first goal for Inter in 225 days, exorcising his inner demons which manifested themselves in the shape of Manuel Neuer in the World Cup final.

Before Sunday’s game, Pioli had said of Anderson: “He has to take the opportunities available to him. With Felipe we’re talking about the completion of a phase of adaptation. He has to keep his head down. He has the chance to do well. I expect him to do so already against Inter.” The Lazio coach’s expectations were well and truly met. And to think, prior to this month Anderson hadn’t really figured in the team. Eight of his 14 league appearances have been as a substitute. On average he has played just 35 minutes per game.

The turning point for him was the injury to Antonio Candreva at the end of November and an encouraging display, capped by a goal, in the 3-0 win against Varese in the Coppa Italia. A subtle change in tactics from a 4-3-3 with out-and-out wingers to a Christmas Tree with Mauri and Anderson in behind either Miroslav Klose or Filip Djordjevic also facilitated this sudden blossoming of his talent. Anderson is finally beginning to show why Lazio paid Santos €9m for him the summer before last. Neymar’s “little brother”, he was emerging and making his first team debut at the time when the now Barcelona forward and Paulo Henrique Ganso were helping the storied club to their first Copa Libertadores since 1963, the era of Pele.

Much-hyped on touching down in Rome, it has taken time for him adjust. “It was very difficult at first,” he told O Globo, “because I arrived with an ankle injury. The football was quicker and I was still recovering full fitness. I had to push myself harder than normal. Tactically, it was also hard. In Italy they’re very strict in this regard. When Brazilians go to Europe I think this is what they suffer most.”

There was a language barrier to breach and a culture shock to absorb too. “I didn’t speak much Italian. I did a few courses so I knew a bit before I got there but you have to be there to learn. When I went out for lunch or dinner on my own it was very complicated to order. I spent two months eating the same thing. I always asked for a spaghetti carbonara and a fizzy drink. Then I had to start a diet to lose the weight I gained.”

Anderson is now settled, integrated and fulfilling his potential. His WhoScored rating of 7.78 is the highest of any player in Serie A in December ahead of Giacomo Bonaventura, Paulo Dybala, Arturo Vidal and Luca Tonelli.  He is giving Pioli quite the selection headache ahead of when Candreva recovers his fitness.

Still the leading assist maker in Serie A [7], the Lazio coach can hardly drop the club’s highest paid player. How does he accommodate them both then? Can he do it? Moving Mauri back deeper would also leave Pioli conflicted when you consider the veteran Lazio captain is the most prolific midfielder in Serie A this season with six goals and has benefited from playing closer to goal. Decisions. Decisions.

It’s up to Anderson to make it tough on Pioli by maintaining these kind of performance levels. He began to glisten just as the Christmas lights were turned on. Lazio fans will be hoping that Anderson keeps shining on and doesn’t start to dim when they’re turned off.

Can Lazio find a way to intergrate both Anderson and Candreva into the starting line-up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below