After mounting a title challenge in the 2019/20 season and reaching UEFA Champions League football for the first time in five years, Lazio struggled for large parts of the previous campaign.
Head coach Simone Inzaghi believed that he had taken the Biancocelesti as far as he possibly could and so when Antonio Conte resigned from his position at Internazionale, Inzaghi was appointed as his successor.
Merely days later, it was reported in the Italian press that Lazio knew who they wanted as Inzaghi’s replacement and on June 9, the former Chelsea and Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri took charge of the Italian club.
Sarri is quite a divisive character it seems and many of his former players have spoken out against the 62-year-old.
It was even believed that the manager fell out with Cristiano Ronaldo during his time in Turin, leading to doubts about the coach’s man-management ability.
However, what cannot be doubted is his aptitude to get the best out of the squad at his disposal and play a very attractive brand of football in the process.
Lazio will be one of the most entertaining teams this season and kick off their Serie A campaign against Empoli on Saturday.
This article will be a tactical analysis of how Lazio will look to play under Maurizo Sarri tactics
It will be an analysis of the tactics that the experienced manager will look to deploy in the Italian capital.
Maurizo Sarr Formation & Lineups
Last season, Inzaghi utilised the 3-5-2 in 79 percent of Lazio’s games.
This was the manager’s favoured formation throughout his entire five-year tenure at the Stadio Olimpico.
Interestingly, Sarri almost always deploys a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-3-3 so Lazio have seen a slight shift in the formation used as well as the overall set-up.
At Juventus, the Italian’s preferred structure was the 4-3-1-2, although he did use a 4-3-3 and a 4-4-2 as well.
The reason the 4-3-1-2 was deployed by the coach in Turin was because of the personnel in the Juventus squad.
The Bianconeri had a lot of very good midfield players but not enough wide players and so Sarri believed that a slight structural change to a two-striker system was best.
There was talk that maybe the ex-Napoli manager would look to stay with this formation but in all of Lazio’s pre-season games so far, he has deployed the 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 so this looks like Lazio’s set-up going forward.
This will likely be Lazio’s starting lineup against Empoli at the weekend.
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