Lazio finally return to play in the Olimpico this weekend against Fiorentina. Hopefully they can gain a positive result and inch away from relegation zonea little more.

As other members have stated on the forum, Reja will be going back to the old fashioned 4-4-2 system with matuzalem and ledema in the midfield. Hitzelperger is training with the team so I'm wondering if this means he's ready to possibly sub off one of the two this weekend.

A setback for Lazio this weekend is that they will be playing Berni in net. Hopefully he will be trying to prove a point and has a fantastic game. The defense will have to work harder .. of course that should be regardless of whoever is in net.

Fiorentina are way ahead of us in quality despite missing Mutu. They seem to work on building their team every year while Lomerda seems to do the opposite. Hopefully we can get them to stumble.

A win this weekend doesn't give us any jump in the table since Bologna are already ahead of us with 28 points and they have to play Genoa.

The likely formation for this match will be:

4-4-2: Berni, Lichtsteiner, Stendardo, Biava, Kolarov; Brocchi, Ledesma, Matuzalem, Mauri; Floccari, Zàrate (Rocchi).

Glad to see Dias left out .. but would like to see Mauri not included, and unfortunately Radu is injured so we're forced to play Biava who has had a sad start.

This season is just about survival .. at this point it would take a lot of straight and convincing victories to gain any sort of credibility back. In 25 games Lazio have only managed to win 5, draw 10 and lose 10. So hopefully we can better our 20% chance of winning statistic... because its just embarassing.

FORZA LAZIO!

Yeah nothing beats a Latius intro - it doesn't feel right when other people do it.. even if I admire their efforts.


It's a little early for me to comment on this game but I feel the urge to do it anyway. Tomorrow Fiorentina face a tough home game against Milan, anything could happen. My point is that last time we faced an opponent who had played on a Wednesday (Parma) we beat them quite easily. So that's in our favour and somehow neutralises the threat to our chances posed by Berni's pending appearence for us, only his 3rd ever appearence for us since 2006.
I can only hope we really do revert to 4-4-2, and I shall be hoping it happens. We will not beat Fiorentina, even if they have one of their customary off days away from home, if we continue with three fucktards at the back.

5 wins so far, and a season of nervously watching how the likes of Siena, Catania, and Atalanta do week in week out, hoping for them to lose such is our inability to win. Its been pathetic.

However, hopefully we can initiate some sort of turning point here, by reverting to 4-4-2 at last, and taking on a quality side, but one that will inevitably be tired from playing their fourth game in 11 days by the time they take to the pitch saturday night.

A revert to 4-4-2 will suggest to me that we have a manager capable of getting out of this mess. Reja acknowledging already that his trusted system doesnt work after two games is a big step forward over another certain manager who still didnt realise it after seven months.

I'm going to the match and I've never seen us lose at Olimpico so fingers crossed. I didn't think we were terrible against Palermo, they were obviously a lot better than Parma the week before and we just struggled with that final ball to create clear cut chances. I've got a feeling we are gonna sneak it 1-0

Another must win game for us, I feel like it could be a turning point in this nightmarish season (lords knows how many time I repeated this statement, oh well...). We have to go all out and strike first then we can park the bus for like 60 minutes and finish them in the injury time.

*sigh*

Balla tried that exact thing and it didn't work. Mainly because he didn't have any hair, he's a shit manager, and Mauri is about creative as an autistic child with no hands.

Why not a straight forward 4-4-fucking-2?

It has been a straightforward 4-4-2 in the training. The assumption is that in attacking movement Mauri tends to cut in to from the flank to the center of the field so as to simulate a trequartista. Also, with Mauri as a winger 4-4-2 can easily be switched to a 4-3-1-2 during the game if the situation calls for it. Nonetheless, according to my understanding the standpoint is Mauri is not assigned the role of a trequartista in the training and it is worth taking note this week has seen Reja using Hitzlsperger on the left flank as well. Encouraging, that. We will be a bit wiser tomorrow again, I presume.

I think it could be the best choice too...Zarate can make some through passes from that position ans can also score too (if he will remember his last year killing instict..)And,yes of course, he is more creative from Mauri...Dont compare diffirent things... 
P.S. I believe though that the best player for that position behind the two attackers is Foggia...Not that Zarate is not good as well but Foggia suits perfectly in there...