Gennaro Gattuso sees Lazio progress in a 3-0 victory away to Juventus, but warns them not to ‘look at the table right now. If we take it one game at a time, we can surprise people.’
The Aquile are no fluke, as they are the only team keeping up the pace with joint leaders Inter on 19 points after seven rounds.
This was a huge result, one that the club had not achieved in Turin since October 2017, emerging with a 3-0 victory thanks to the Oliver Provstgaard header, a Gustav Isaksen strike, and the Fisayo Dele-Bashiru run from his own half to seal it late on.
It is officially the best Lazio start in history, even more than their Scudetto campaign in 1999/2000.
Gattuso sees Lazio progress
“It is the first time I’ve won here since I started doing this profession. My staff and I propose ideas, but it’s the lads who put it into practice, so they deserve the credit,” Gattuso told DAZN Italia.
“We push hard in training, but we’ve created a real family unit here. The club also deserves compliments, as we had little money for the transfer market, but we went looking for good people who were determined, who wanted to come here at all costs. It took a while, we didn’t have a lot of money, but it’s easy for me to coach them.”
They now have six wins in Serie A and that dramatic 2-2 draw with Milan, despite injuries ruling out Albert Gudmundsson, Matteo Cancellieri, Nicolò Rovella, Alessio Furlanetto and Adam Marusic.
“We mustn’t look at the table right now. We’ll enjoy this marvellous victory, but then heads down and back to work ahead of Parma. We’re not accustomed to being up there, and maybe we’re not ready to be either, but if we take it one game at a time, we can surprise people.
“The mentality and hunger were important, as we went into the half-time break 1-0 up, we ran risks in the games against Milan and Venezia, but this time I think we took another step forward in terms of controlling the match,” insisted Gattuso.
It is a remarkable turnaround considering Lazio’s season started with an early exit from the Coppa Italia and difficulty doing business on the transfer market to reinforce his squad.
Gattuso tied Luciano Spalletti’s side in knots tonight by overloading their wingers, but the defensive movements also worked well, catching Juve offside six times.
“I felt like we should’ve done better in the first half, Romano could’ve attacked Alajbegovic better, while Belahyane didn’t create the width he could’ve done with our full-backs. Lazio press constantly, we are not afraid to play man for man, but the biggest concern was that against Milan and Venezia we were dominant and then just stopped.
“This is why I feel this is progress, because we are all or nothing, we don’t yet have the maturity to control a lead. That is why we’ve always got to push with vehemence, as it’s what took us to this success.”
Provstgaard said after the game that he had never experienced an atmosphere and team spirit like the one he felt at Lazio’s Formello ground, so how did Gattuso achieve that?
“I said that I didn’t want to be a coach anymore because I’ve been a player, so every time I saw certain attitudes, I’d go home with a bellyache. I worked on myself, there are two or three things that I am intransigent on, but the rest I listen to the players, I don’t get as angry with them. With phones and devices, that’s the world they live in now and I have to accept that.
“The things I do stick to, they need to follow and that’s it. I think that is the secret. My experiences abroad also helped me learn about different mentalities, as they all have different personalities, and I speak to them during the work, try to put them in the best condition to express themselves,” added Gattuso.
“Players are more evolved now than they were in my day, but the difference is they tend to give up at the first sign of difficulty, so it’s about not letting them give up, reminding them the importance of training in a certain way and recovering properly.”
Notably, the Lazio fans have been boycotting the home games for many months in protest at President Claudio Lotito, so this was a rare opportunity to celebrate with the ultras, who were numerous in Turin.