A Rock N’ Roll Serie A
After the 0:4 defeat to Inter I knew that my Lazio team was a season or so behind the big boys of the league and that included the Purple boys led by Alex. We had a two week break after the Inter mauling to recover and get some more sharpness into the legs of some of the players.
The hated Juve arrived in the capital and this match was an early chance for me to see whether we could challenge for the Champions League spots or not. Of course, in the back of my mind I would love to challenge for the title but it just isn’t likely at this stage, especially with Alex smashing all the teams that come before him.
This match was all about Taty and Zaccagni who both scored a goal apiece for a 2:0 victory. Sturdy and secure, we never even looked like conceding. Juve may not be challenging for the title but they will certainly be in top four contention so this was a great win to take away three points from my rivals early on. Like in Atalanta where we were unbeaten in our home stadium for almost nine months in the league, I was determined that the Stadio Olympico would be a fortress.
Atalanta Come to Town
My former team mates came to the capital and in typical friendly fashion I sent out a few text messages to the players, staff and some of the board of directors to ask if they wanted to meet up to reminisce about old times.
I was ghosted. Nobody replied.
I didn’t think I left on particularly bad terms but unfortunately the chairman had made something of a disaster in my replacement – it was Brendan Rodgers. I get along quite well with Brendan but we both know that he doesn’t have either the tactical nous or man management skills that I possess. I suspect the chairman maybe sees all of us Anglo Saxons the same way and appointed him on that factor alone, but big mistake. My former club was rotting down in the bottom half of the table when I arrived. I did feel sorry for them but after the ghosting, I was angry and determined to enact my revenge.
Lookman, Pasalic, Samardzic, even bloody Scamacca – all those guys who owe me for providing them with the tactics to hit third in the league and batter Barcelona over two legs and they didn’t even reply to a single text. I told my lads to smash them up and they duly delivered with 17 fouls in the match as well as a red card. Atalanta scored early from the spot – Miranda, one of my last signings before I left, stepped up and tucked it home and I was 0:1 down at half time. On came the subs, Simeone joined Taty up front and equalised after a superb piece of play from Zaccagni. I pushed and pushed and wanted the winner but my LB saw red. Then Samardzic, one of my former loyal soldiers and main creative force, decided to even up the game after a horror challenge. Did he level it up on purpose? Who knows but I decided to push again and Zaccagni was released down the left, he beat his man and crossed it low for Taty who tapped in a 96th minute equaliser. Take that you Atalanta bastards!
After five games we were third in the table but Alex was sitting pretty at the top of the table. The season is heating up and the pressure is on.