Tudor was called in to solve the problems.
Sarri left alone
When we last talked about the club, we noted its originality and efficiency. The important thing was that they believed that with Maurizio Sarri the team had prospects, despite the decline. Less than a month has passed and Lazio is on fire. One of the factors is the resignation of Sarri himself.
The first intuitions about the separation appeared after Bayern’s elimination from the Champions League, but then the Romans declared full confidence in the coach. But in Serie A there was a defeat for Udinese – and Sarri left the club.
As details emerge, it becomes clear that the initiative came from the coach. Maurizio is a specially trained mentor, faithful to his principles. And with character. At Napoli he showed excellent results, but at Chelsea he had to face the reality of being a European giant. However, I tried to supplement my methods there – this provoked a conflict with Kepa, the players’ dissatisfaction with the training regime
The same thing happened to Juventus: tension was growing in the locker room, the turning point was the defeat against Cagliari after winning the scudetto. A separate discussion concerns the leader of the Turin team, Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese was still good then: given his status and his abilities, he had to adapt to the character corresponding to his star status. The striker was breaking out of Sarri’s usual system – and the coach and the player simply tolerated each other. The dissonance remains and immediately after winning the scudetto Sarri leaves Juve.
Sarri did not forget to bring his stubbornness to Rome – and his effective work was accompanied by complaints about the difficult schedule, about the stupidity of the Super Cup format with a trip to Saudi Arabia. There were also complaints against the club: according to the latest data Maurizio was dissatisfied with the project and the excessive influence of president Claudio Lotito. The result of such a conflict of interest is known. This was the case with Ivich in Krasnodar. Lazio’s story ended almost the same way.
The fans consider Immobile a traitor: Ciro is ready to leave
Lazio president Claudio Lotito came to give explanations after the coach’s resignation, but did nothing but further inflame the conflict:
The farewell to Sarri was a real surprise. He told me he felt betrayed. But who to ask?
Immediately afterwards, the historic leader of Lazio, Ciro Immobile, came under attack. The striker has been with the team for 8 seasons and has always been stable. Only in recent years has Ciro started to score fewer goals: between 20-27 and 12 goals the difference is noticeable. And in 25 matches of the current championship he has scored only 6 goals, 4 of which were penalties.
Fans believed that Immobile was responsible for Maurizio’s departure, so the footballer was bullied. First, during a traffic jam, a fan saw Ciro and approached his car and started insulting the player. The footballer’s son was also in the car: we can see that what was happening had frightened him very much. Then the discontent extended to Immobile’s wife. Not to mention the constant criticism on social networks.
Now the striker is preparing to file a complaint, the situation has pushed him to think about changing teams.
The new coach took bronze with Marseille
Sarri has already found a replacement. Lazio will spend the rest of the season under the leadership of Igor Tudor. Previously, the Croatian coach worked in Marseille and won bronze medals with the French team, while showing extremely intense football. The coach also learned what an aggressive fan base is: not everyone is ready to work with the Provencals because of the fans.
And after his departure he already emerged on the Italian market, but first as a candidate for Napoli (the Neapolitans preferred Walter Mazzarri). Now for the Romans this is an excellent specialist, precisely because of the experience of working in a club with aggressive fans.
Now Tudor won’t have to be split between different tournaments. The Romans fled Champions League, and the Italian Cup won’t interfere much. Indeed, this is an opportunity to gain credibility (the club is already in the semi-finals). But the main task is to return to the European Cup zone.
The coaches bring out the best in Lazio
It’s not worth criticizing Sarri – you only need to look at the list of transfer fees to be convinced of this. Since the coach’s arrival in the team, the Romans have invested 93 million euros in strengthening. This is for 3 seasons. Or 6 transfer windows. 14th in the league – Genoa, Monza, Verona and Udinese also spent more.
Sarri worked with what he had and the team gradually rose to silver in Serie A, which did not objectively reflect the state of the club. Given the resources, Lazio was certainly not ready to enter the fight for the title. Also, do it parallel to the fight in Champions League. They didn’t sign Zakharyan in the summer because they preferred the free agent Kamada. This is about transfer strategy.
From the beginning it was clear that Lazio was an original and interesting club. But not a competitor for Atlético and Bayern. Once the Romans had to play on two fronts, problems became apparent.
Under Tudor it is unlikely that anything will change. The blue and white will continue to live according to their possibilities. They will start climbing onto the table again. At some point maybe they will even reach the top 3, but then the circle will close and they will have to start all over again. In recent years Lazio has been interesting not for its results, but for its technical staff. Pioli and Inzaghi grew up here, Bielsa worked here. Maurizio Sarri has prepared himself for new challenges. Now it’s Igor Tudor’s turn.
