Do Italian Serie A club Lazio represent the future of top class soccer? On Sunday, Lazio extended their Serie A league lead to three points over second placed Juventus with a 4-2 home win against Lecce. In so doing, Lazio were continuing an excellent seasonal start that has seen them go unbeaten in the European SuperCup final, seven Italian League and four Champions League games.
For a side of the squad strength and recent outstanding track record of Lazio, there is nothing particularly remarkable about this good start. The exceptional aspect to Lazio's current run, however, concerns not the good results but the number of players used. The magic word, "turnover", has struck with a vengeance at Lazio for the club has used 23 players in 12 games so far. In effect, apart from the third choice goalkeeper, Luca Mondini, every single squad member has figured at some point for Lazio this season.
In the opening weeks of this season, Eriksson has put his theories into practice, turning conventional football wisdom on its head by consistently changing a winning team. Eriksson reacts to a Serie A win by promptly dropping five or six of his team to bring in fresh players for the forthcoming Champions League game.
"In the beginning turnover was not easy because it is difficult for great players who normally never sit on the bench to get used to that or even to having to stay at home and train rather than go and play in a big match. But, now, players are learning to accept it because they know that you cannot play 65 big matches in a season and always be at your best. . .and of course, it helps a lot that we are winning . . ." said Eriksson.
It helps, too, if you have a squad so strong that there are two outstanding players available for almost every role in the team. If the first choice central defensive pairing of Alessandro Nesta and Yugoslav Sinisa Mihajlovic is out, then Portugal's Fernando Couto or Italian international Paolo Negro are ready-made replacements. If right-sided midfielder, Portugal's Sergio Conceicao is out, then Yugoslav Dejan Stankovic steps in. If central midfielder and ballwinner Matias Almeyda is rested, he is replaced by either of his compatriots, Diego Simeone or the versatile Nestor Sensini. If play-maker, Argentine Juan Veron is rested, then that makes room for Czech Pavel Nedved. If Croat striker Alen Boksic is injured, then Roberto Mancini steps in, or if Chilean Marcelo Salas is out, then Simeone Inzaghi is on standby.
Eriksson believes that the policy of constantly shuffling his player pack will reap dividends next spring when the season moves towards its climax.
"Playing stress will make itself felt. . .We haven't seen the difficulties yet, the real problems will come after Christmas in February, March and April if we are still in the Champions League which I hope we will be. Come that period, we will need a lot of players." Given Lazio's current dominant position in Champions League Group A, it seems that he and his players can look forward to further overtime come the New Year. Lazio go into tomorrow night's home clash with German side Bayer Leverkusen knowing that a draw will see them win the Group, no matter what happens in their last game away to Dinamo Kiev next week.
Lazio's bright start this year contrasts sharply with miserable initial periods in the last two seasons. Eriksson puts this year's better start down to two fairly obvious factors - lack of key injuries such as those which deprived the club of Nesta and striker Christian Vieri for the first half of last season and Lazio's SuperCup win in August over reigning European Champions Manchester United.
While the English side may not have taken that SuperCup clash in Montecarlo very seriously, Lazio looked to it for an ideal seasonal curtain raiser:
"It was very important to start the season with a win against Manchester United, it gave us a lot of confidence, made us feel that we're strong and ready. . .and since then we've played well in almost every game in the Champions League and the campionato," explains Eriksson.
One final question remains regarding Lazio. Will turnover help them to go one better in the campionato this season, finally winning a title which they lost to AC Milan last year by just one point on the very last day of a season after they had led the way right through the spring? Eriksson is hopeful but he is not committing himself on that one. Come back in May for the answer.
Post Script: Last week, we urged then Spanish league leaders Rayo Vallecano to enjoy it while it lasted. Good advice, too, since Rayo were knocked off the top of the table on Sunday by champions Barcelona following a 3-1 home loss to Betis.
Paddy Agnew may be contacted at pagnew@aconet.it
