Gennaro Gattuso is not a man prone to poetic distractions. So when the Lazio boss stood in the aftermath of a routine 3. 1 win over their own Under. 2...
Gennaro Gattuso is not a man prone to poetic distractions. So when the Lazio boss stood in the aftermath of a routine 3. 1 win over their own Under. 20 side and muttered about needing 'improvement', you sensed the rawness of a man who sees the cracks before the plaster dries. GoalZaza was at the training ground, and what we witnessed was less a statement of dominance and more a glimpse into the overhaul this squad requires.The result itself is, of course, utterly meaningless. Pre. season friendlies are little more than public fitness drills, a chance to grease the gears before the real engine roars. But Gattuso, ever the pragmatist, knows that the scoreline flattered his senior professionals. Against a youthful, eager, but clearly inferior opponent, Lazio should have been out of sight by the interval. Instead, they laboured through periods of sloppy possession, and the Under. 20s, to their credit, managed to breach a defence that looked, at times, worryingly porous. The message from the touchline was clear: this is not acceptable.What did impress Gattuso, however, was the hunger. You could see it in the closing down, the refusal to let the intensity drop even when the legs grew heavy. That is a Gattuso trademark; a non negotiable demand for high energy and a refusal to accept the easy option. There were flashes of the tactical flexibility he is trying to instil, with Lazio shifting between a structured low block when out of possession and quicker, more direct transitional play when the ball was won. The clinical finishing for the three goals, particularly from the wide areas, offered genuine comfort. But one suspects the veteran coach spent more of the evening fretting over the moments his side were caught on the break than celebrating the execution.This was a public dressing down delivered in the most subtle of ways. Gattuso knows that the real tests are weeks away, when the Premier League and Serie A heavyweights come calling. There is a long road ahead, and the early signs suggest he will accept nothing less than a relentless march forward. For the Lazio faithful, the sight of their manager demanding more after a comfortable win is precisely the kind of steel they have been craving. The honeymoon is over before it even began. And that, for a squad that has often lacked it, might just be the grit they need.
