Dark Winter comes early for poor Napoli
The in form Dutchman leads Lazio's thrashing of the Partenopei and it could have been far worse for the visitors
Also on this day: October 16, 2011: Lazio Roma 2-1. A last gasp goal by Klose sends Lazio fans into delirium. Player of the day: Cristian Brocchi
The season so far
At the end of the 1993-94 season Sergio Cragnotti surprised everybody by giving the Lazio managerial job to Zdenek Zeman. The Czech coach had impressed the world with his incredible tactical organisation at Foggia. Two of his former players had been signed by Lazio during the summer: Roberto Rambaudi and Jose Chamot. They joined another former Foggia star Beppe Signori. Arriving were also Giorgio Venturin (Torino), Ivano Della Morte (Monza) and Daniele Adani (Modena). Leaving Lazio were Luigi Corino (Brescia), Luca Luzardi (Napoli), Dario Marcolin (Genoa on loan) and Claudio Sclosa (Cremonese, loan), all players that were considered unsuitable for Zeman’s style of play.
Dino Zoff, who had bored everybody to tears in recent years, was promoted to club President. In this way Cragnotti did not lose the charisma of the former World Champion, very important particularly for PR reasons.
So far Lazio were fifth, having won 2, drawn 2 and lost 1. They had also passed the first rounds of the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Cup.
The match: Sunday, October 16, 1994, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
A 50,000 crowd on a sunny mid-October afternoon at the Olimpico.
Lazio were without top scorer Beppe Signori who was on the bench with some muscular problems. Napoli had an absence too, defender Fabio Cannavaro. Napoli also looked different, playing in uncharacteristic orange shirts (this was before one could expect practically any colour from any team).
The game got under way and Lazio scored almost immediately. In the 3rd minute Beppe Favalli put in a long cross from midfield and Alen Boksic anticipated the two central defenders and headed past Taglialatela. Lazio 1 Napoli 0. A perfect start for the Biancocelesti.
Napoli attempted a timid reaction but it was the home side who threatened again. In the 7th minute at the edge of the box Boksic set up Roberto Rambaudi whose effort went just wide.
In the 15th minute Lazio set up a wonderful move. Roberto Cravero interrupted a Napoli attack and burst forward, passed to Paolo Negro who put a cutting, vertical pass into the box to Boksic, the big Croat then back heeled the ball to incoming Rambaudi but his left footed strike was saved. A great team effort however.
Napoli had a huge potential chance. In the 17th minute Rincon surged down the right wing and put in a perfect low cross to Agostini in front of Luca Marchegiani but the "Condor" was not his lethal self and clumsily messed up the control of the ball and lost the moment.
In the 20th minute Lazio made Napoli pay for their wastefulness. Rambaudi from the edge of the box slid a left footed pass inside the area on the left where Aron Winter curled a low shot round and past Taglialatela and in on the opposite post. Lazio 2 Napoli 0.
A few minutes later Winter made a rare mistake with an awful back pass freeing Agostini in front of Marchegiani but the keeper was alert, raced off his line out of the area and cleared.
In the 33rd minute Napoli pulled one back. On the left wing Agostini backheeled to Rincon who somehow got past a couple of defenders, reached the by-line and crossed low to Pecchia who, with the inside of his foot, put the ball in the opposite corner. Lazio 2 Napoli 1.
Lazio went back on the attack and took a two-goal lead again in the 36th minute. Boksic beat his man on the left wing and chipped in a medium height cross straight across the goal mouth where Gigi Casiraghi acrobatically dived forward and headed the ball in from close range. Lazio 3 Napoli 1.
Lazio were rampant and scored again only two minutes later. The set up was slightly fortuitous as Cravero anticipated an opponent in midfield and seemed to just hammer the ball forward without looking. It turned into a perfect assist for Casiraghi, unmarked inside the area, he chipped the keeper but the ball came back off the post and was then slotted in by Paolo Negro who was the quickest on the rebound. Lazio 4 Napoli 1. It was becoming a rout and Napoli were all over the place.
In the 42nd minute Lazio made it five. This time Diego Fuser was the assist man, with the outside of his foot he teed up Winter running into the box and the flying Dutchman blasted a low right-footed shot into the right corner. Lazio 5 Napoli 1. Total destruction.
For the second half Napoli replaced Boghossian with a more defensive Bordin. Napoli's intentions were clear, to avoid further humiliation.
The second half was similar with a difference. Lazio attacked, created chances but could not score.
In the 52nd minute Rambaudi slipped just before shooting after being set up by Roberto Di Matteo.
Lazio made a substitution on the hour mark taking the best player on the field off, Aron Winter, for Giorgio Venturin. Napoli meanwhile had become even more defensive in the 52nd minute when they had taken off Benito Carbone for Fausto Pari.
In the 62nd minute Venturin himself hesitated, messing up a control in a good position. Five minutes later Lazio made their second change, bringing on Roberto Bacci for Rambaudi.
In the 75th minute Boksic created havoc dribbling past half of Napoli's defence but then Casiraghi put the ball wide. A minute later the Croat went solo but his finish was again off target. In the 80th minute Fuser shaved the post as did a Boksic header, from a Casiraghi cross, in the 85th. Final score Lazio 5 Napoli 1.
Lazio had scored five but could easily have scored another five in the second half. A lapse in concentration when finishing and perhaps a subconscious desire not to further humiliate the hapless visitors kept the score line down. At least Napoli had the sensitivity not to bring on Altomare...because that's where they were today, on the high seas.
Lazio had put on a fine attacking display despite missing Signori and were now joint third with Juventus and Foggia, on 11 points. Roma were top, but that would fortunately not last long.
Who played for Lazio
Marchegiani, Negro, Favalli, Di Matteo, Cravero, Chamot, Rambaudi (67' Bacci), Fuser, Boksic, Winter (60' Venturin), Casiraghi
Manager: Zeman
Who played for Napoli
Taglialatela, Matrecano, Grossi, Rincon, Pecchia, Luzardi, Cruz, Buso, Boghossian (46' Bordin), Agostini, Carbone (52' Pari), Rincon
Substitutes: Di Fusco, Tarantino, Altomare
Manager: Guerini
Referee: Ceccarini
Goals: 3' Boksic, 20' Winter, 33' Pecchia, 36' Casiraghi, 38' Negro, 42, Winter
What happened next
The season continued relatively well. Lazio’s main ambition was a place in Europe in some way or form and to play good football. They managed to keep a high standard of play – another 5-1 (Padova), 4-0 (Milan and Genoa), 4-1 (Inter) – despite an occasional pause (losing the derby for example). The team scored lots of goals, not surprising when one has Alen Boksic, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Beppe Signori in the squad. One could see that the Biancocelesti had enormous potential and if it were not for the occasional defensive blackouts, they could have done much better.
In a bit of a crisis with five games to go, they then won all of them taking them to second place behind Juventus.
The highlights of the season were four: a 7-1 win at home against Foggia, an 8-2 win against Fiorentina, a 3-0 away win against Juventus and the 2-0 win over that other team from Rome.
In Coppa Italia, Lazio passed the first two rounds, with some difficulty in the second against Piacenza. In the quarterfinals they beat Napoli 3-1 on aggregate and faced Juventus in the semis. After losing the first leg at home 1-0, they were also 1-0 down in the second and in ten men, but they managed to equalise and almost made it to the final, but the woodwork denied the Biancocelesti and in the end a Roberto Baggio penalty handed the final to Juventus.
In the UEFA Cup, Lazio had some trouble scoring away from home. The Biancocelesti passed the first round comfortably but had to wait to the very last dying seconds before getting the better of Trelleborgs FF from Sweden in the second round. In the third, against Trabzonspor, the first leg was in Turkey and Lazio managed to score their first two away goals and reached the quarterfinals winning the home leg too. The Biancocelesti were then paired with Borussia Dortmund of former player Karl-Heinz Riedle. The first leg saw Lazio win 1-0 thanks to an own goal. Dortmund won the return match 2-0 with a non-existent penalty at the beginning of the game and a Riedle goal two minutes from time. Lazio were unlucky with Signori out due to injury and a referee who clearly had problems with his eyesight (incredible penalty not given to the Biancocelesti).
Luca Marchegiani and Paolo Negro were the players with most appearances in the season (48, Casiraghi was the one with most matches in Serie A) and Signori the highest scorer (17 in Serie A and 21 in total).
Sadly, this was the last season at Lazio for Paul Gascoigne. He came back after the terrible injury of 1994 and played 4 matches. But Zeman’s type of game was too limiting for him so he was sold to Rangers during the summer.
Lazio 1994-95
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 34 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 69 |
Coppa Italia | 8 | 6 | - | 2 | 19 |
UEFA Cup | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
Total | 50 | 30 | 8 | 12 | 98 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup |
Marchegiani | 48 | 33 | 7 | 8 |
Negro | 48 | 32 | 8 | 8 |
Casiraghi | 47 | 34 | 6 | 7 |
Rambaudi | 46 | 32 | 7 | 7 |
Fuser | 45 | 32 | 6 | 7 |
Top Five Goal Scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup |
Signori | 21 | 17 | 4 | - |
Casiraghi | 15 | 12 | 3 | - |
Boksic | 11 | 9 | - | 2 |
Negro | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Fuser | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
Let talk about Zdenek Zeman
There is a lot to say about Zdenek Zeman. The manager who never changed his 4-3-3 formation no matter what (he did once with Lazio though), the man from the Czech Republic, the man who felt betrayed by Lazio so he betrayed them himself by going to Roma, the man behind the Foggia miracle but also the one who launched Ciro Immobile, Alessandro Nesta, Beppe Signori and Pavel Nedved and many others.
Zeman was born in Prague on May 12 1947. He played football in the youth teams of Slavia Prague but he also played ice hockey, water polo and handball. In 1968 he was in Palermo with his uncle Cestmir Vycpalek, former player and ex manager of Juventus, when the Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to repress the Prague Spring. He stayed in Italy, for obvious reasons, and his uncle got him his first jobs as manager in Palermo amateur teams. He became a professional manager in 1979 and started working in the Palermo youth teams.
His first real job was with Licata in Serie C2 in 1983. He did well in his three years there helping them to promotion in Serie C1 in 1984-85. He then went on to manage Foggia for the first time but was fired after the 27th game. In 1987 he was head trainer at Parma in Serie B and despite beating Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly, was let go after only 7 games. In 1988-89 he managed Messina in Serie B, helping them to a season without much excitement but launching Salvatore Schillaci's career.
His second stint at Foggia started in 1989-90 and there he created what the Italian media called Zemanlandia (Zeman land), launching players like Francesco Baiano, Roberto Rambaudi and Beppe Signori. He chose players that could thrive in his 4-3-3 formation. They did not necessarily need to have a footballing pedigree but it was important they could be functional to his tactical vision. Some of the players did not even think they had the characteristics that Zeman thought they had, but he was a keen observer and could see things others could not. Foggia got promoted in his second year and despite the club selling basically all of the players he had nurtured, he managed to keep Foggia in Serie A for three consecutive years.
In 1994, Lazio President Sergio Cragnotti, wanting Lazio to be more exciting and to have a change in mentality, decided that Zeman was the key and he became Lazio’s manager. One thing however is training a bunch of players who were not that famous and another is telling experienced pros that how they had trained for years in pre-season was completely wrong. Zeman was bound to have problems in trying to change Lazio’s mentality. The signing of Rambaudi and José Chamot plus the presence of Signori, all of them his former players, should have helped matters.
The pre-season training was much tougher than usual. The classic “washout” diet when the players had to eat only potatoes and vegetables in the first few days of training or the running up and down the steps of the stadium. No ball in the first days of training either.
The first year Lazio did very well, despite a few ups and downs, and arrived 2nd, their best position since the 1974 scudetto. They never really competed for anything even though they did reach the semi-finals of Coppa Italia and the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup.
The second year was characterised by the attempted sale of Signori to Parma and the team remained more or less the same as the previous year. More inconsistency during the campionato but a good third place in the end.
In the third year Lazio lost Aron Winter and Alen Boksic and they were replaced by Nedved and Igor Protti. The players seemed tired of following Zeman. Occasionally spectacular, it was difficult to keep the rhythm that the manager wanted and, in the end, Lazio were unable to deliver the goods. Zeman was sacked after losing to Bologna at home in January and replaced by Dino Zoff.
For Zeman this was a betrayal. Lazio was his big chance. He never imagined that he would be sacked. Some fans saw him sit down and cry after being told by Zoff he was no longer manager. What probably made it worse was the fact that the team started playing well again under Zoff and managed to reach fourth place.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was Tenerife. Lazio had scored the opening goal, fell behind twice but managed to come back only to melt away and lose 5-3. The Czech was the great culprit. Signori stated at the end of the game “Scored three away goals, no team in the world would have been kicked out. Diego Fuser was even more drastic: “This time it’s not the players' fault, it must be sought elsewhere. As for the tactical attitude, ask the coach. It is useless to bring players who do not follow him in training. Those who do not listen must stay at home”. The Zeman bubble had burst.
After being fired Zeman said: “Without Lazio I’m a destroyed man, I have never done so badly. I’m disappointed but not with myself. I’ve always given everything I had to Lazio. I must have made a few mistakes: the main one was that I wasn’t convincing enough”.
He wanted revenge and Roma President Franco Sensi gave it to him on a silver plate. What better revenge than becoming Roma manager and declaring all of his love for the Giallorossi for years to come. So he did, much to the surprise of the Lazio fans.
His first year at Roma had some positives and some negatives. The positives were that Roma played very well arriving 4th, for the first time in years Roma finishing above Lazio, the players thriving with the new 4-3-3 formation such as Francesco Totti and Cafu, plus some spectacular games. However, Roma lost four derbies in one season, the inconsistency that occurred at Lazio repeated itself with Roma. And, let’s face it, Roma got to fourth place only because Lazio, who had shown to be vastly superior, collapsed towards the end. His second year with Roma was not as good but he still managed to get Roma to fifth place. This was not enough to keep his job.
After managing the two Roman teams Zeman failed to settle down in any club for more than a few months. Three months in Turkey with Fenerbahçe, a handful of games with Napoli before accepting the job as manager with Salernitana in Serie B. He reached sixth place with a bunch of unknowns in the first year but was sacked in the second. At Avellino in 2003-04 things got even worse and they were relegated in C1 at the end of the year.
In 2004-05 he was the manager of Lecce in Serie A. He led the team to survival and the Giallorossi stayed in Serie A but Zeman was not confirmed. In March 2006 he was called to Brescia but it was another failure as was his second stint with Lecce later on in the year.
In June 2008 he became manager of Red Star Belgrade but it did not last very long. His next job came in 2010 when the former owner of Foggia Pasquale Casillo bought the club again and gave Zeman the job as manager. The team did not do too badly in the third tier but below the Czech's expectations and he decided to leave at the end of the season.
In 2011 he joined Pescara. With a bunch of very young players (Ciro Immobile, Marco Verrati and Lorenzo Insigne) the old magic was back and Pescara were promoted to Serie A. His team was spectacular, way too good for Serie B.
He did so well at Pescara that Roma offered him a contract and he went back to the Giallorossi after 13 years. In all of these years Zeman had always spoken well of Roma, and as a consequence pretty badly about Lazio, and was much loved by the Roma fans. Despite great enthusiasm, Roma did poorly and he was sacked after losing 4-2 at home against Cagliari in February. At least he avoided the infamous loss in the Coppa Italia final against Lazio.
Next up was Cagliari but it was a failure as usual. In 2015-16 he was manager at Lugano and managed to keep the team in the Super League but left at the end of the season. His return to Pescara in 2017 was also a failure.
After three years of inactivity he was called back to Foggia again, in Serie C. The team managed to get to the play-offs but were beaten in the first round. He resigned at the end of the season. From February 2023 he was back at Pescara in Serie C. The club reached the semi-final of the playoffs but were beaten by Delio Rossi's Foggia.
On December 12 2023 he was forced to go to hospital for a few days with heart problems. He was forced to go again on February 17 2024 and this time had to undergo surgery. At this point, seeing that he could not be on the bench, he resigned.
So how can one define Zeman’s career as manager? Many failures and a few successes. His management was successful only when there was a total, almost mystical faith in him. If any player had doubts then he could no longer be successful. Furthermore, his stubbornness over the 4-3-3 formation at all times, no matter what, did not help.
Sources
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