Team Focus: Eagles Flying Towards Champions League Thanks to Pioli Impact

Honestly, they should really have been at work. It was a weekday after all. And besides many of Lazio’s best players were away on international duty. But that didn’t stop more than 2,000 supporters showing up to the club’s Formello training ground last Thursday for a training session, a meet and greet with Keita Balde Diao, Cristian Ledesma, mascot Olimpia the Eagle and a friendly against Juventus Club Parma, an amateur side captained by coach Stefano Pioli’s son Gianmarco. Dad even joined in. There’s a good vibe about Lazio at the moment. Spirits are high.

The enthusiasm contrasts starkly with the disenchantment about the place this time last year. Vladimir Petkovic was gone barely six months after leading the club to its most satisfying triumph outside of the Scudetti won in 1974 and 2000: a euphoric victory in the Coppa Italia final against rivals Roma. Hernanes was sold and not replaced in the final days of the January transfer window. Close to 50,000 fans attended a game against Sassuolo at the Olimpico in February. Their motive to protest the ownership of Claudio Lotito not support the team. A mass fogliolada happened. Pieces of paper were held up with the slogan “Free Lazio” written on them.

A boycott of all but one match until the end of the season followed. Disillusioned by it all, Edy Reja walked again but, to his credit, for the good of the club. “I’m convinced Lazio needs a new coach who can bring new enthusiasm,” the veteran said. “The atmosphere has to change.” Pioli’s appointment was welcomed as a smart one. His dismissal by Bologna in January owed much to the club’s financially straitened owners coming to resent the deserved new contract he had signed that they could no longer afford.

He’d saved the club from relegation in his first season. Had it started when Pioli replaced Pierpaolo Bisoli in October 2011, they would have finished seventh. Their record in the second half of the campaign was the fifth best. If things unravelled, it was because Bologna decided not to retain Marco Di Vaio’s successors, his principal goalscorers Alberto Gilardino and Manolo Gabbiadini. He left with a burgeoning reputation more or less intact. Approaching his 50th birthday and in his 10th senior job, the impression was that a talented coach had matured and possessed the right experience to step up, handle the pressure in the capital and push Lazio on.

They recruited intelligently, strengthening across the board. There was now balance in the full-back positions with Dusan Basta complementing Senad Lulic. Moving early for Feyenoord centre-back Stefan de Vrij meant they were ahead of the curve when he had a break-out World Cup and made the FIFA all-star team. Santiago Gentiletti, his partner, arrived resplendent in the glory of San Lorenzo’s first ever Copa Libertadores. Marco Parolo brought the energy in midfield that had charged Parma’s surge to a sixth place finish last season. As with de Vrij, the swiftness with which they had acted in the winter to reserve Filip Djordjevic on a free transfer from Nantes in the summer meant they not only beat serious competition but finally had a striker capable of easing the goalscoring burden on an ageing Miroslav Klose’s shoulders.

Of course, much of this went under the radar. More noise was being made about Roma. Any superiority Lazio felt after winning the Coppa Italia at the expense of their cugini the previous year had all but evaporated. Rudi Garcia had, in his own words, “put the church back in the centre of the village.” Roma had threatened to stitch the Scudetto on their shirts. Runners’ up, they had finished 29 points ahead of Lazio and were flashing the cash in the transfer market. Juan Manuel Iturbe was the biggest signing of the summer in Serie A. Tooling up for another title challenge, they managed to cock a snook at Lazio in the process, taking advantage of a stall in talks with Cagliari for defender Davide Astori, to do a deal for him themselves. So angered by this were the Lazio ultras that they gathered outside the hotel where Igli Tare, the club’s director of sport, was staying at their pre-season training camp to demand an explanation.

All the focus on Roma however was to count in Lazio’s favour. It allowed them to work in relative peace and tranquility. No European football helped too. They wouldn’t be playing as many games as Roma, Fiorentina, Napoli and Inter. They’d be fresher. Pioli got more time on the training ground to work on things and get his ideas across. Expected to do well and return to the top six after concluding last season in ninth, a reality check came in the form of three defeats in their first four league games. But truth be told Lazio had played well in their visits to Milan and Genoa. They were unlucky at San Siro and Marassi. De Vrij in particular found the learning curve steep and it didn’t help that one partner after another got injured.

This was to be a theme of Lazio’s season. By the half-way stage they had suffered 26 injuries to 19 different players, many of which were long stops. And yet, has it clipped the Aquile’s wings? No it hasn’t and that’s a feather in Pioli’s hat. Lazio really began to take off in October. Five wins in six hinted at an ability to fly. Shocked by Empoli and then outclassed by Juventus, they soared again through December. It coincided with Antonio Candreva, their best player up until then with 7 assists, hobbling off with a muscle injury in a stalemate with Chievo.

Pioli adjusted the system. Captain Stefano Mauri was deployed closer to goal. Felipe Anderson came into the team. Both played between the lines behind either Klose or Djordjevic and began to wreak havoc. Mauri turned back the years. He has scored six times and at 35, is enjoying his best season since the 2003/04 campaign when the Divine Ponytail Roberto Baggio was putting his genius at Brescia’s disposal and made everyone around him better. Anderson has had a similar impact.

He has combined for 16 goals in his last 12 appearances - netting 9 times and laying on 7 assists for his teammates. Written off in the summer and close to being loaned out, the 21-year-old has eclipsed Paulo Dybala as the revelation in Serie A, particularly this calendar year. Since he established himself in the starting line-up in late November, Lazio have picked up only one point fewer than Juventus. Some of his displays have been scintillating. He had Lazio 2-0 up almost single handedly at half-time at San Siro against Inter and in the Derby della Capitale.

When Candreva returned, Pioli tweaked things again to a 4-2-3-1 so they could all play together. He has unlocked all this team’s offensive potential. Not since 2000/01, the year of their title defence, have they scored as many goals (51) as they have at this stage of a season. Their attack is the league’s second best. Though only fifth in terms of shots per game (14.8) and seventh for chances created per game (10.9), Lazio’s conversion rate is the highest at 12%. No team has more players with five goals or more, which is just as well. It means they aren’t dependent on Klose, 36, nor did the horror injury Djordjevic suffered cost Lazio as much as first feared because they’ve been spreading the goals around. It’s the mark of a good collective.

As a unit, they’ve got hustle. What really impresses is the intensity and aggression with which Pioli has got the team playing, how they hunt down the ball and recover it. No team has made as many tackles (20.9) or interceptions (19.3) per game as Lazio. Parolo in particular is exemplary in this regard. To add another layer of perspective only Juventus have regained possession more, and they have only done so 1 more time (1602 to 1601). Max Allegri, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Vincenzo Montella and have Maurizio Sarri have all come in for praise this season, but it’s time Pioli also got his plaudits.

Lazio are 11 points better off than a year ago. Only Samp have made more of an improvement (14). They have won six straight in the league for the first time since 2007. Finding themselves 12 adrift of Roma in February they’re now a single point back, poised to overtake and claim an automatic Champions League spot. The momentum is with them. The Eagles are soaring and, with their eyes on the prize, preparing a swoop. Can Roma stay out of their clutches?

Can Lazio usuro rivals Roma this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below