Lazio return to Serie A action against Monza with Gennaro Gattuso asking his side to look beyond the early table. Five matches have brought 13 points, four wins and a draw, placing the Biancocelesti at the summit and giving the coach a start that few anticipated in the summer. Yet his message during the international break has remained consistent: position alone will not define the work.
A fast start with another mark in sight
Victories over Bologna, Genoa, Udinese and Venezia, together with the draw against Milan, have delivered Lazio their best opening to a league season when wins are calculated under the modern three-point system. The visit of Monza offers an opportunity to take a fifth victory from the first six Serie A fixtures, something Lazio have never previously achieved.
- Lazio have collected 13 points from their opening five league games.
- The side have won four times and drawn once, against Milan.
- Their successful opponents so far have been Bologna, Genoa, Udinese and Venezia.
- They have conceded three goals, a defensive record matched by Roma and surpassed only by Cagliari, who have let in two.
- Three clean sheets have already been registered; Lazio have not reached four so early in a season since 2006-07.
The fixture comes with complications beyond the pitch, including the prospect of an empty Stadio Olimpico. Gattuso wants the Lazio seen in the opening weeks to preserve its identity as the season begins to test the squad more severely.
Gattuso keeps the focus on daily work
Bookmakers had placed Gattuso among the coaches most likely to lose his job before the campaign began. The early surge has overturned those expectations, but the 48-year-old has refused to treat it as a personal reckoning.
“The league table is not my priority,” he has said repeatedly. “The aim is to give the team a style and to work properly every day.”
Gattuso has placed particular importance on building a working culture within the group. He believes the players are responding, while insisting that each match now requires fresh confirmation of the standards established in the first five rounds.
“We know we have to prove ourselves game after game. We will see how far we can go,” he said.
His response to the early attention has been shaped by the same view. “If I had listened to people when I started playing, I would have achieved a quarter of what I did. You have to listen less, work, and believe strongly in what you are doing. Passion and the desire to improve every day are needed.”
A coach shaped by a long route
Lazio are the eleventh club coached by Gattuso across Italy and abroad. Monza will also be the 28th different opponent he has faced as a Serie A manager, following his previous spell in the division with Napoli, which ended in 2021.
He does not frame the present run as revenge for past judgments. “No revenge,” he has said. “I am still young, I am 48 and I have great experience behind me. Without complaining or looking back, you look forward.”
- Gattuso accepts that assessments of his coaching career have varied.
- He believes the essential point is to retain the awareness that improvement is always possible.
- His conclusion is simple: “You reap what you sow.”
The current Lazio side, then, represents the accumulated weight of those experiences rather than an answer to his critics. A strong beginning has changed the conversation around the club, but Gattuso is asking for continuity rather than celebration.
Juric brings back memories of Napoli
Monza coach Ivan Juric stands on the other side of the next contest, reviving memories of a tense meeting between the two men in Napoli’s final match of the 2020-21 season. Napoli drew 1-1 with Verona, then managed by Juric, and finished fifth, missing out on Champions League qualification and settling for the Europa League.
The occasion was marked by friction on the touchline. Juric called for VAR intervention and a penalty following a challenge involving Koray Gunter and Victor Osimhen, while Gattuso reacted angrily.
The aftermath proved decisive for Gattuso’s Napoli tenure. Aurelio De Laurentiis announced the coach’s departure in a message that thanked him for almost two seasons and extended greetings to his wife and children.
Gattuso may say he is not pursuing old scores, but the Monza match still carries the traces of that earlier disappointment. Lazio’s task is more immediate: protect their defensive solidity, extend an exceptional start, and show that the opening chapter can become a sustained campaign.
