Udinese vs Lazio: Comeback for 3 Straight Wins!

0:00Good afternoon, good afternoon, I'm Bonacera, Lazio World. Welcome to our instant reaction pod. I am your host, Sean Macintosh, going at it solo today, but excited to do so because what a match that we just witnessed, a comeback victory for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign, Lazio has started a season with three consecutive victories. That is no difficult feat. We find ourselves in a unique position for Lazio, but a difficult task for many, many clubs. We are one of only three teams to have started this season with three consecutive victories at the moment. That is Roma, unfortunately, Inter, and of course Lazio.

1:14Who would have predicted this? I certainly wouldn't have. Look, my predictions going into the season was about 11th place and I had Udinessa at 10th because you can put your money on it. That is what Udinessa does. Yes, I'm uploading this podcast so folks can join us across different social media elements. Look, I'm shocked. Absolutely shocked. This far exceeds my expectations. I said this before kickoff today that this match in particular was going to be a real litmus test for this Lazio. Why? Because Udinessa, a team who I find to be perfectly mid-table has already given fits to clubs. Their match against Tacomo, so all of them stumble out of the gates with a hard fought draw.

2:22Udinessa, not an easy team to find points again. We know where they sit in the table. This was really an early season test for us to see, are we better than expectations? Are we better than mid-table? Or are we disillusioned by those first two matches against sides that we can be honest about, weren't the greatest of sides? Not that we've taken down a giant by any stretch. I'm still hesitant to over-react about this result. But this is an important result, a very, very important result. Again, it's not easy to start a season with three consecutive victories regardless of who you play and who you are. This one, let's dive in from the jump. Starting 11, we see Pina Monti getting his first start in a Lazio shirt. We also see Belayan, no shock there, getting the nod at that number six role with both Kataldi and Rovella being out due to injury. Isaacson reclaiming his starting spot in the lineup after a couple lackluster performances from Cancelieri.

3:34This one, we see Nuno off to a flying star, right off the bat four minutes in. Nuno with a nice chance beating every buddy down the sideline and playing a dangerous ball across the goal. Unfortunately, nobody there to tap it in. Nuno finding himself on the other end of a nice corner from Zakani, unfortunately a simple save. Manda sworced in the eleventh minute, a double save, the first real moment of danger early in this match. We see Udinese playing a dangerous ball, a very dangerous ball, 21st minute, perhaps our best chance in the first half when Udinese plays a ball back to the keeper, Zakani picking it off and then lays a ball back to a Pina Monti who's just trailing it a bit too far, not able to get on top of that, which would have been just a tap in goal. But 49th minute, we go in the halftime and 49th minute, a few minutes into the second half and it's Udinese, unfortunately scoring first a wonderful back you by David on Udinese, but Prostgard lost his man there.

4:44So here we are, the first real test, it's the first goal we can see this season, first moment we're down, first real test, how would Lazio under Gattuso respond and we saw a response. I mean, we make some subs, 53rd minute, we see Nostal and coming in for Pina Monti who looks to have taken a knock, Country Lieri coming in for Isaacson, who didn't look quite fit and didn't really look good if we're being honest, but then a number of Florian chances in the 63rd minute, a ball crossed into the box, a number of players crashing into each other, Zakani getting a header that saved after Country Lieri plays a decent cross to him. And then in the 75th minute, that man, Davide Frattesi, thank you, Inter, because this man has found himself perfectly adjusted in Rome, Frattesi scores his third goal in his third match in a Lazio shirt, what a clutch player he is. Credit to Zakani who plays a fantastic ball, Beatis Defender, please a perfect ball in Frattesi, just knows where to be in the box, dangerous as can be, it's one one Lazio.

5:55And then 80th minute, we see Frattesi coming off for Guntminson and we are at it, the momentum, that's I love the momentum, the calmness, the desire, and we see Nuno. And if you hadn't seen it, find the 80th minute, 82nd minute, Nuno just cooks his defender, just over cooks him. It is such an incredible highlight reel, I can't wait to clip that and throw it on our socials, but cooks his defender, unfortunately we're not able to score a goal from it, but in the 88th minute, sorry, 87th before we score the goal, Zakani takes a crack at it and hits the post. And again, this confidence from Lazio and then a minute later, just a fantastic ball by Ducky who plays a ball across and just a perfect header by Guntminson, perfect place, perfect timing, his first appearance and not but 10 minutes later finds the back of the net for the game winning goal.

6:57My three words are less to describe this match, composed, confident, come back. This was a Lazio squad that really, I don't know how to explain it other than this confidence that we haven't seen in in so long from them, they were just so composed and of course I was nervous and I was worried, no matter what, but there was this, this team played with this calm and this confidence again from the Zakani taking a crack at it and hitting the post from players just finding space and having a bit of audacity, no, no, setting the tone from the start. It was a performance that I was just so proud of in a response that tells us so much about this Lazio side under Gatuso and the credit has to be given to Gatuso as much as we were all down on him, myself and Kuro. I was just a little bit more fun and it makes things easy when it's a bit more simple but wow, players are stepping up and it was awesome to see my man of the match really tough to hand this one out because I mean, I was really happy to see him.

8:24I mean, you can give it to so many players here, I mean so many players deserve a shout so I'm going to talk about a few of them that I was just really, really impressed with again, Nuno Tabash may very well be the man of this match because again, set the tone early on forced Udinese into a number of yellows, it was clear that they were just going to have, they had no way of handling him and they were going to have to take a break. They were going to have to take him down and their goal was to just frustrate us, make it a little bit sloppy, kill as much time as possible and we just didn't buy into it and we kept doing what we, what we intended to do and that was attack and that was go through Nuno absolutely loved. So in the totality of the match, I've got to give it to Nuno Tabash but a couple other players that I really want to highlight here, Kenneth Taylor fantastic fantastic match all around top down from his build up to the defensive responsibilities, just he looks to be the player that we saw last year, you know, you start off a bit shaky in the first couple matches, but Kenneth Taylor's back baby, he looks incredible.

9:39Of course, Fratezi for scoring the goal, fantastic from him. I had this prediction that many clowned me for early before the season started. I said that Davide Fratezi would score more goals than any other midfielder in Sidiya. In fact, he would lead Lazo in goals this season. I got cooked and so far looks pretty good looks pretty good. So I got to give a shout out to Belayyan to a player that I've been pretty hard on, rightfully so I'd say because he's just hasn't looked up to the responsibility of backing up a Rovela or Kataldi came in today and look he, he was, he was tackling, he was winning balls. I thought he played a very, very good match didn't look out of sorts. I really liked what I saw from him. I mean, you know, he was pretty clean in his passing. He was 62, 67, 93% passing accuracy there. I thought he, he wasn't dispossessed at all, you know, most of the time he was, he was safe with it. He was smart. We've talked about his decision making in the past.

10:50We've been playing four out of six ground doors. The man was a beast. Everything that we like about Rovela, we saw a lot of that defensively from Belayyan. So kudos to the kid for really stepping up in a big way for the most part. We'll talk about Profskards, but Doki really a strong match obviously contributing to the game winning goal. Fantastic. I thought he was a very, very good player today. And we again, I'm going to talk about him because he is just showing to be a sturdy, sturdy player, Flodiani from Anoflo Diani. No mistakes from the kid did his job made strong tackles was a part of the buildup. Look, as far as I'm concerned, when Mausich comes back, this is Flodiani's job to lose. This is Flodiani's job to lose. Mausich can come in and spell him if needed, but you know, this, this fear over the past five, six years every time we are looking to close out a match.

11:56It seems to be that Mausich was often on the wrong side of missing a defender off of his back shoulder or being in the wrong place or losing sight of where his man was. We didn't have that today. And again, three matches, three victories, no stupidity. We've only conceded one goal on three matches. Flodiani's been a big part of that. So absolutely love what I've seen from the kid. Look, let's, let's, before I go into the bidon, I just want to run through the statistics because again, just what a bounce back. This just after with in SS scored. I mean, we just locked in, but 60% possession for Lazzo to with in SS 40%. And once again, we're holding an opponent under a goal, under an expected goal within SS 0.76 expected goals. Lazzo 1.89. So slightly out producing our expected goals. We had 19 shots to their 10. And we just kept at it, kept at it. There's more of a willingness, more of a of a freedom to have a go at it. Only six of those on target. But again, you're not going to get them on target if you don't, if you don't take the shot.

13:0530 touches in their box as opposed to within SS 18. Two big chances for both sides. For us, we just pat a lot of passing here. 478 to their 292. Very strong, nearly 90% on our passing accuracy. We were smart with the ball. We were decisive when we needed to be and we took our chances. But there's just so much of the frustration last year was obviously there's a lot of passing going on. We get to the final third. There was little ideas. Even if the ideas aren't as intricate as some teams, you just man, you just there, there does seem to be a weight lifted off. It got to be said that the Lazzo supporters traveled incredibly well. You can hear them. The atmosphere. They had a, that's a fantastic choreo before the match. So obviously on the road here, Lazzo feeling a bit more at home. I just loved everything I saw. So look, getting into a bit of, you know, the negative side here for issuing out a bidonnet.

14:10I've got to again, it's, it's, it's that right wing position. I probably have to give it to Isaacson who was very underwhelming. And what's particularly disappointing here is, is, look, Conte Lieti, we know just not good enough doesn't have the quality and has been very disappointing to start to the season. Isaacson, who has been out injured and trying to slow play his, his way back into full fitness and into this role gets his, his opportunity to stake a claim to that possession and to that position. It seems like nobody wants to, to earn that right wing position. It really disappointing, invisible by him. But I've also got to give a shout for bidonnet for profs guards. Look, all in all, it was fine, but all it takes is, is one bad moment. And I thought on the goal he was, he was completely lost. He, he didn't see the trailing player come in. Again, a fantastic,

15:13little back heel pass from David, who was being marked by docky, but profs guard completely lost him. So those two for me were the two bidonnes, but you know, when I think of the totality of the match, Isaacson really just did nothing here. I know I'm seeing here some, some great comments and chatter from many of our latziali who are tuning in live across a number of different platforms. Johnny Aguyer here on YouTube says, what a comeback. And now we need our fans against me, line and important here again, there is an important boycott happening. It's not about the wins and the losses. It's not about one market. This boycott is being done as a response against ownership. And so for how the club has been run for 20 plus years, a good start to the season or a big match doesn't undo or change anything.

16:17I think it's important for fans to know this isn't just about how a team is performing. So, you know, and so when, when people see this or see a signing and they're like, well, the fans going to come back, I think it has been, and it's, it's good. It's, it's been picked up by a lot of media about this boycott. And, and you don't see that level of coordination from supporters in other leagues or for other clubs or they're so easy to topple over and, and kind of go back to support in the way of showing up in a stadium. I think this is really important. And so, it's important that lots of supporters are sticking to this are sticking together and, and continue to boycott attending matches at Stadio, Limpico, but they are in full force on many of these away trips. I've talked about this actually personally looking to make it out to a lot of match and planning a trip to Italy this winter. And, you know, I told my wife is disappointing that, you know, if we go to Rome, we can't go to a match.

17:20The atmosphere is not going to be worth it and two in support of our fellow Lazali not attending a match in Rome. So we'll have to plan our travels accordingly and see when Lazzo is playing and where they are playing. So we can see them and support them on the road. But, yeah, this, this, but, but we can be positive about the team, about the manager, about the players and about our Lazzo, because our Lazzo is more than just the 20 years under Lotito and, and, and I for one, and thrilled with the start of this season. Again, I want to temper and slow down any expectations because it is only three matches and, and these, these results have been against Bolonia, Geno and Udi, but again, we thought that we very well could find ourselves in, in the bottom half of the league. So potentially a very different story. We still need good health. We need players to continue performing. They are doing their part. So the crudos to the players, of course, very happy with the manager, putting them in a position to succeed.

18:31Fantastic, fantastic results and fight in this weight being lifted. I couldn't be any happier right now. Again, Lazzo sitting in third in the table with nine points against a behind Roma, Inter, because of gold differential Roma sitting on a plus nine gold differential, Inter at plus five, Lazzo at plus three. And then Milan behind us was seven points after drawing against the event this weekend. So one match at a time. It's, it's, it's one match at a time and it's hopeful that we stay healthy. That next match September 12 against Milan. So an important fixture in five days less time to recover. It is a Saturday match after playing on a Monday. That one will be very interesting up against Mario Hila. So first time he'll be facing his former team. But I've got nothing left to say. I'll keep this one short since it's just myself on this.

19:39I appreciate the support of this podcast. If you don't already, please subscribe to us on YouTube. That's where we typically go live after every match. We're also on every social media that you can count on. So tick tock Instagram, Twitter, check us out, give us a follow. Let us know what you want us to cover. Want us to hear. But as always, sempre forza, Lazzo.