Lazio return to Serie A level on points with Inter and Roma, but the table is only the first measure of Rino Gattuso’s opening weeks. A side that began the campaign with uncertainty around several roles now carries a broader group of reliable starters, and the challenge is to protect that progress after the international break.
Gattuso has built the early run around daily standards rather than grand declarations. Speaking while receiving the Colalucci Award at Rome’s Circolo Antico Tiro al Volo, he said his first task was to give the team a recognisable identity and establish proper work every day.
“The culture of work is fundamental,” Gattuso said, identifying discipline, punctuality and respect as part of it. His second message was equally direct: Lazio must ignore outside noise, work hard and retain belief, with the desire to improve never disappearing.
Quick facts
- Lazio resume the league joint top with Inter and Roma.
- Tijjani Noslin has scored decisive goals in each of Lazio’s last two league matches.
- Mandas has Lazio’s best average rating after five rounds, at 6.90.
- Nuno Tavares leads Lazio’s outfield players with a 6.80 average.
- Sunday’s opponents are Monza.
Noslin is the latest player to benefit from the coach’s intervention. The Dutch forward had offered little consistency and very few goals across his first two seasons at the club, but Gattuso has selected his moments carefully and received important returns.
His two recent league goals both proved decisive. Against Monza, he will pursue a third consecutive scoring appearance, a sequence he has never previously managed, and he is expected to remain through the middle of the attack.
Gattuso is leaning towards the same line-up used before the break, with Matteo Cancellieri the principal selection doubt. Andrea Pinamonti has improved physically in recent weeks, yet is expected to begin among the substitutes and provide an option during the match.
There remains a possible alternative if Cancellieri does not recover and Gustav Isaksen is affected by his commitments with Denmark. In that case, Noslin and Pinamonti could play together, with Noslin moved to the right of the forward line.
Revived roles
The resurgence has not been confined to the Dutchman. Christos Mandas had appeared stuck in an unfinished phase of his Lazio career and had not played during the previous season. Gattuso nevertheless chose the Greek goalkeeper despite options being available in the market.
Five games into the season, Mandas has repaid that faith with Lazio’s highest average mark, 6.90. It is an early but significant indication of how quickly the hierarchy has changed.
Nuno Tavares has followed a similar path. The Portuguese full-back had slipped out of focus and his standing had fallen, reflected in the level of bids reaching Lazio for him. Under Gattuso, he has returned to a leading role and holds the club’s best rating among outfield players after five matches.
Reda Belahyane completes the most striking set of recoveries. Neither Marco Baroni nor Maurizio Sarri had placed sustained trust in the Moroccan during his year and a half at Lazio, but Gattuso has installed him in the midfield control role and made him an established part of the new side.
That is the real weight of Lazio’s start: players once peripheral have become central to a team with a clearer collective direction. Reaching the summit has already demanded a rapid transformation; staying there will ask for more.
Monza offer the next test of that discipline. Lazio return with Noslin chasing another decisive afternoon, several revived players carrying the form of the first five rounds, and Gattuso insisting that the work must remain louder than the attention around the table.
