After finishing last season as the runner-up in Serie A, Lazio didn’t have the greatest start to the current season, being in the second half of the table with six losses already out of thirteen games.

Even so, they secured their qualification spot in the UEFA Champions League with the chance to lead the group if they succeeded in beating Atlético Madrid during the last group stage game week.

Our tactical analysis and scout report will provide an analysis of Lazio’s principles, tactics and ideas in possession. Let’s start with their build-up phase.

Build-up phase

Against Fiorentina, Maurizio Sarri’s side started on a 4-3-3 shape during the build-up, a back four of Manuel Lazzari, Patric, Alessio Romagnoli and Adam Marušić.

Along with Nicolò Rovella as the defensive midfielder, Matteo Guendouzi is closer to him than Luis Alberto, who is in a more advanced position.

They faced a 4-4-2 high pressing from the opposition, as shown below; during that game, Lazio relied on Alberto mainly to be their primary outlet of the ball.

Vincenzo Italiano’s side had  Giacomo Bonaventura join Lucas Beltrán in pressing the two centre-backs. At the same time, their wingers mark Lazio’s full-backs, leaving Alfred Duncan and Arthur Melo to press Guendouzi and Rovella.

Marušić here passed the ball towards Alberto (shadowed), who can receive in behind the opposition’s midfield line.

Here is Fiorentina’s centre-back Martínez (highlighted in red) stepping forward to press Alberto, who had time to set the ball for Rovella.

This eventually means a gap is created in La Viola’s back line also here we can notice the striker Valentín Castellanos is widely positioned while Felipe Anderson is more centrally and both could exploit that gap.

Moreover, Alberto again could receive with time as Martínez still to step and press him. Meanwhile, Duncan (highlighted in white) shifts to the centre as the extra man behind the pressing line.

The same space is created again, and Alberto can find Mattia Zaccagni on the left side.

Another way they could benefit from that was to play directly behind Fiorentina’s Martínez. Here is shown the 4-4-2 shape of the away side with the Argentinian defender in red dragged by Alberto again.

The goalkeeper, Ivan Provedel, is playing the ball directly towards Castellanos.

Castellanos successfully received with options and Lazio has the advantage of the 3v3 against the backline.

Identically, the same situation again, the same pressing structure from the away side, and Provedel is playing the long ball.

This time Zaccagni received and set the ball to Alberto. Notice the wide positioning of Castellanos to open the gap as much as possible; Duncan is also positioned in the centre.

Besides, the space created is a direct ball from Marušić to Castellanos, who is flicking the ball for Alberto.

Consistently, they succeeded in progressing with the ball that way.

Another approach they had was through Anderson, who dropped and dragged his man marker, freeing a space utilised by Guendouzi or Lazzari.

Moving on to the game against Bologna, Thiago Motta’s side had a 4-2-3-1 shape in pressing Lazio.

One of  Joshua Zirkzee, the forward, and Lewis Ferguson, the central attacking midfielder, is pressing the two centre-backs while the other is marking Lazio’s Rovella. Furthermore, Alexis Saelemaekers and Riccardo Orsolini are marking the full-backs, and lastly, the pivot of Remo Freuler and Michel Aebischer are pressing both Guendouzi and Alberto.

Consequently, Bologna had an extra man in the backline, which was what Fiorentina suffered from, and that completely countered Lazio’s ideas during the build-up.

Nevertheless, the away side had a numerical superiority on the first line of the build-up which gave them more time and space on the ball so most of the time Motta’s team was forced to drop for a mid-press.

However, Lazio didn’t succeed in creating goal-scoring chances.

The only way they could escape the Red and Blues press was through using the pressing triggers as a decoy, here Romagnoli’s pass found Alberto and the Spanish returned to his goalkeeper.

Alberto’s pass wasn’t accurate enough, forcing Provedel to receive almost on the edge of the penalty box, which triggered the home side’s striker, Zirkzee, to press. Still, Provedel was calm enough to pick a precise pass to Rovella.

Rovella could receive away from Ferguson, who was pressing Romagnoli, and now Freuler had to press, leaving Guendouzi to receive freely.

The same problem showed against 4-2-3-1 pressing from A.C. Milan. Anyway, Lazio tried to get their full-backs in a more advanced position to increase the distance that the opposition’s wingers should cover.

Milan’s Rafael Leão was usually dragged to press the LCB Nicolò Casale, leaving Marušić who started as a right-back, free due to increasing the distance of pressing.Provedel can play the ball now either directly to Marušić or through a third-man pass.

Conversely, Milan adapted by instructing their wingers, especially Leão, to focus more on pressing full-back instead of being dragged towards the CBs.

Leão’s pressing on Marušić won him the possession, and Lazio again suffered when playing against the 4-2-3-1 high-pressing shape.

And against Roma, who pressed in a 3-5-2 shape, the front two Romelu Lukaku and Paulo Dybala pressed the two centre-backs while José Mourinho’s wing-backs marked Lazio’s full-backs.

In addition to the midfield trio of Leandro Paredes, Edoardo Bove and Bryan Cristante, who defended in a man-oriented approach against the Eagles’ midfield of Danilo Cataldi, Guendouzi and Alberto.

The 4-3-3 of Sarri’s side played in the hands of Roma, I Giallorossi’s shuffling maintained the advantage of having an extra man at the backline.

Their main intention of pressing that Lukaku and Dybala split the field into two halves forcing Lazio towards only one side and the Wing-back opposite to the direction of play shifts to the back-line instead of pressing the opposition’s full-back.

As shown, Patric plays the long ball due to the aggressive pressing, and Roma’s LCB Evan Ndicka drops with Anderson.

Diego Llorente cleared the ball as Ciro Immobile is in a 2v1 against him, Gianluca Mancini, and the RWB Rick Karsdorp, who is dropping with the opposition’s LW Pedro.

As the ball is on Lazio’s left side, Karsdorp is pressing Marušić. At the same time, the other full-back, Lazzari ( highlighted in white ), is free-isolated on the other side, which means Roma’s LWB Leonardo Spinazzola is dropping at the backline.

Marušić passes to Alberto, who lost possession against Cristante.

And a dangerous attacking transition occurred.

Another time, Provedel tried to pass towards Marušić.

And Dybala intercepted the ball again in a threatening position.

That defensive approach from Roma needed a quicker switching of play from the Eagles to reach the isolated player on the other side.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen quickly enough and they suffered all over that phase.

One of the few ways for them to escape the press was to take advantage of the gap between the opposition’s midfield line and defensive line.

Roma’s midfield trio is dropping with the opposite midfielders a space is created as their backline doesn’t push forward enough to close this gap.

Here, Provedel players a direct ball towards Pedro.

Pedro could receive as Immobile is pinning both centre-backs of the opposition.

Notice the gap between their midfield and defensive line.

And it kept happening successfully.

During Progression

Their progression had almost the same structure and ideas as the build-up phase, mainly trying to evacuate a space in the opposition’s last line and target that area with a long ball.

Here Alberto (highlighted in white) is advanced-positioned trying to draft either the RCB or the RB with him so Romagnoli’s long ball could find Pedro who is running behind.

Additionally, Castellanos is dropping to drag the other centre-back.

Over and above, one of the wingers could be centrally positioned with the striker so he can also drop to drag the defenders.

Here, Pedro (shadowed) us centrally with Castellanos, dropped, received and set the ball for Alberto. The Spanish winger here dragged one CB with him, so Guendouzi is the man to target the evacuated area.

Castellanos as well dropped to drag the other CB and immediately Alberto played the long ball in the targeted area.

Here is a 2v1, but Alberto’s ball and Guendouzi’s control weren’t accurate enough to threaten the opposition.

Typically, Rovella is targeting Anderson with a long ball behind the defensive line.

Final third attacking.

During the final third attack, Lazio mostly depended on forming triangles in the wide areas with a full-back, a winger and the near box-to-box midfielder trying to create spaces out wide.

Against a low block shape of 5-3-2 from U.S. Salernitana, here Lazzari, Guendouzi and Anderson are forming the triangle shape on the right-hand side.

Anderson is dropping in the midfielder position, dragging the LCB Lorenzo Pirola with him. Meanwhile, Guendouzi is dragging the LWB Domagoj Bradarić, he passes the ball towards Lazzari and runs into the space.

Lazzari plays to Anderson, who is coming short and plays the ball towards Guendouzi using his third-man run.

In Contrast, Salernitana’s back five line means they always had the extra man, Norbert Gyömbér here anticipated the pass and intercepted the ball leaving Immobile to the responsibility of the other CB Flavius Daniliuc.

Furthermore, on the L.H.S, the away side’s LW Mattia Zaccagni is the one providing the width and pinning the opposition’s RWB Pasquale Mazzocchi, Marušić having the ball more centrally and dragging the opposition’s RCB and again space is created at the back line.

Besides, Immobile is coming closer to pin the other CB.

Marušić passed down the line to Zaccagni and made the underlap run into the free area.

Zaccagni returned the ball for him in the space and noticed Immobile’s position to avoid the CB Gyömbér from closing down on Marušić.

Marušić is ready for the cross with three players inside the box, Immobile, Guendouzi and Anderson, while the left box-to-box midfielder Daichi Kamada is on the edge of the box for the second ball.

The same triangle shape again with Guendouzi this time is the one dragging the LCB and Anderson is pinning the LWB.

Lazzari is passing the ball to Andrson, who will find Guendouzi.

The French midfielder flicks the ball for Lazzari who can run into the space left by Pirola who followed Guendouzi.

Nonetheless, Gyömbér again minimised the threat as he was the extra man on the midfield line.

One thing Sarri’s team didn’t make the best of was the space between the lines; usually, there was a gap between the opposition’s midfield and backline.

As shown here, Anderson can receive in that area from Kamada with Immobile pinning the two central defenders.

However, no one stretched the field from the right side in the highlighted yellow area, which allowed the home side’s LWB Bradarić to press Anderson.

Again, it was the same situation with the same free area on the right side. Immobile received and passed towards Guendo this time.

Anderson again received and is being closed down. Lazzari here was late to advance in that area.

Now both Anderson and Zaccagni are a little widely positioned but dragging both wing-backs with them, and the same gap behind the defensive line is open.

Cataldi’s long ball met Immobile’s amazing timed run, who was fouled and earned a penalty towards the end of the first half.

Exactly the same ideas showed up against Roma, triangles on each side to evacuate either the wide or the half-space.

Conclusion

Under Maurizio Sarri, Lazio is showing interesting ideas in possession in all phases, a great combination of play, long balls, and invading the backline.

Anyhow, there are a lot of areas to improve, in their build-up they faced obstacles against the 4-2-3-1 shape of Bologna and A.C. Milan.

On top of that, they also need to make better use of the switching play to find the isolated player, as in the case of the game against Roma, stretching the field and bringing it into effective action when it comes to the space between the opposition’s midfield and defensive line.