Lazio thrash Juventus too. Spalletti and Allegri’s jobs are on the line
It ends amidst merciless boos from the Allianz Stadium. The Juventus players – their faces contorted, their eyes staring into space – wander across the pitch like lost sheep, unsure whether to head under the stand to apologise to the furious fans or to flee straight to the changing rooms.
This 3-0 defeat that Lazio have inflicted on Juventus is a real Caporetto. Who knows what language they speak: the Bianconeri on the pitch are, in fact, all foreigners, and Luciano Spalletti – the main target of criticism, the man on whom the fierce sword of controversy hangs – remained in the stands due to suspension following his row with his colleague Pisacane in Cagliari. ‘A moment of frustration,’ said the Tuscan manager. Now, after this ordeal, he seems more drained than angry. Just like his players: hollow shells, lifeless, lacking both a game plan and an identity.
It is Gattuso’s Lazio, however, who have the last laugh: having also won in Turin (with goals from Provstgaard, Isaksen and Dele-Bashiru), they have drawn level with Inter at the top of the table. It seems like a joke; no one in August would have bet a penny on it. But reality, even in football, almost always surpasses fantasy.
Rino Gattuso, nicknamed ‘Ringhio’ (the Growler) due to his gruff manner (to put it mildly), is now being praised by everyone, even by those who, until a few weeks ago, used to mock him and regarded him merely as a ‘motivator’, someone whose job is to give the team a jolt but not to devise tactics or create play. Then there’s the black hole of the national team, for which he – like Luciano Spalletti – has to make amends: only now, with this Lazio side galloping ahead, Gattuso is emerging from his bubble of penance. Meanwhile, after a year at Juventus, Luciano is back to square one. Just like in the Game of the Goose. On matchday seven, Spalletti has one point fewer than Tudor’s side – Tudor having been sacked for incompetence, just as Thiago Motta was before him.
It’s hard to tell, in this tangled mess, who is most to blame. Is it the club, with this costly merry-go-round of half-baked players who lack spirit and can’t score, or Spalletti himself, who must surely have endorsed the decisions of a board that seems even more confused than Kolo Muani and Woltemade? We’ll find out soon enough. Of course, the manager’s own behaviour – with his outbursts and cryptic statements – does little to improve an already very difficult situation. Not so much because of the league position (eighth place, 11 points behind Lazio and Inter) as because of the lack of credible prospects or a viable plan for a turnaround, apart from the return of the numerous injured players. In a football world as hysterical as ours, which always needs a head to roll to get out of a tight spot, Spalletti is taking a big risk because the far from transparent spectre of Antonio Conte looms large behind him – a man who, incidentally, left Allegri with a Napoli side that was completely worn out.
