I have already selected our best (well, my best) so now it is time for the worst. Arguably, narrowing down bad Lazio players over the past 10 years has been a tougher task than sounding out the good ones, simply because, we have had a ridiculous amount of players; a ridiculous amount of whom, were ridiculous. So, here are the eleven players I would like to forget wearing the biancoceleste and the eleven I can only dream of seeing walk out, together, hand-in-hand at a derby in the Olimpico.
For Rioma.
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Goalkeeper: Juan Pablo Carrizo
Billed as the best in South America at a bargain price, we waited the best part of a year for JP’s arrival while he worked out what nationality he was, among other things. His signature was supposed to be a massive coup for us, a feather in Lotito’s cap. In reality, he was a complete and utter shambles and was almost immediately shown the door as soon as Muslera had proven his worth. I don’t talk about him much here because as far as I am aware, there is no chance of him coming back, barring a miracle. He hates the president and more sickeningly, he despises the Curva. So, his progress at Real Zaragoza is of little relevance to me. However, for those of you who are interested, he has played about 70% of their games this season and considering their lowly league position, he has made little impact. At present, he is first choice but Zaragoza leak goals for fun; Barca and Real have put 6 past them for example and it’s hard to prove your worth with a backline like theirs. In saying that, I doubt he will ever get to reacquaint himself with the tifosi here.
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Left-Back: Oscar Lopez
Who? Well, do you remember the Mimmo Caso era? Do you remember that rather good-looking fellow who came all the way from the Nou Camp to sign for us and did absolutely nothing but fail miserably? If you don’t then you are one of the lucky ones. To be fair to the guy, he never did much anywhere and obviously wasn’t the most talented of footballers. However, he came from Barca and with that came a certain degree of expectation. After all, he should at least be good enough to shine amidst a team fighting relegation. But he wasn’t, far from it and despite having the unique quality of being able to play anywhere in the backline, he also had the unique quality of being able to play really badly anywhere in the backline. Best forgotten.
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Centre-Backs: Matias Lequi & Francesco Colonnese
I understand the temptation for some to include Cribari and Siviglia in their selections but at least at one point they were good. Gottardi is probably another candidate but a goal against Rioma prior to 2000 spares his blushes. Instead, I have opted for two defenders who significantly underwhelmed. The former is another from the Caso era, a supposedly talented player of considerable height. The ideal centre-back; not. He did fine in Spain, both with Atletico Madrid before us and Celta Vigo after us, however, at 28, he should now be in the peak of his career and it is mildly humourous to find him trying to make a name for himself (and failing) with Iraklis in Greece. That’s the kind of form he displayed in Rome. As for the latter, you all know the name. He was decent at Inter but a failed Riomanista who did absolutely nothing in his four years with us needs no further justification for selection.
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Right-Back: Emanuele Pesaresi
We have been fortunate enough to have been blessed with half-decent right-backs over the last decade. Pesaresi is probably a strange selection but for a while at Sampdoria in the 90’s and even Napoli, he showed potential. As soon as he arrived in Rome, that evaporated. I can barely remember him playing and he went down as a wasted talent. Yes, it was a good squad and perhaps he hadn’t enough about him to make the cut but he didn’t get any better when he left. We killed him, basically.
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Left-Midfield: Nikola Lazetic
At the start of the decade, he managed to gain somewhat of a reputation playing for Fenerbahce before he ventured to Italy and tried his luck with calcio. Somewhere along the line we got lumbered with him. I recall one magnificently impressive game and after that, he flattered to deceive and soon found himself touring the country. He had slightly more success elsewhere but taking the talent he was meant to have into account, there is no denying that he messed things up here and for that reason, I feel he merits a spot in the side.
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Centre Midfielders: Christian Manfredini & Ivan de la Pena
Differing reasons for the selection of these two; the former impressed at Chievo more out of luck than skill and apart from scoring a goal with his backside, he has provided little else to get excited about in what is a tiresome spell here at this stage. The latter is now captain at Espanyol, having settled well back home after four years of torture with us. In other words, he is a fine player who was just useless in our colours. Both had chances here, neither delivered.
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Right-Midfielder: Gaizka Mendieta
No explanation needed, we spent record amounts of cash on him to play terribly in a handful of games. Quite possibly, the worst transfer in the history of football and maybe even the greatest collapse in ability. At Valencia, he was world class, with us, I would have fancied my chances of beating him into the starting line-up. That’s no exaggeration and it pains me to say it. In an indirect and slightly unfair sense, he completely ruined our club.
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Forwards: Stephen Ayodele Makinwa & Darko Kovacevic
Two very different players; one is meant to be a speed machine while the other is a tall targetman, in the mould of Igli Tare. At least the Albanian could score; Kovacevic did nothing for us having made himself a useful utility striker at Juventus before heading for Real Sociedad and almost firing them to a shock La Liga title. What happened with us, I will never know, but he conveniently found the net to help dump us out of the Champions League a few years back. As for Makinwa, we all know what he is capable of here and that’s pretty much nothing. However, at Atalanta, he became a key player for Delio Rossi and 7million at the time sounded promising. If we could sell him for 7euro now, I’d be happy. Funny how things change.
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That’s my team, I’ve read all the other entries that were made. Feel free to discuss and disagree with me and fire out those you thought would be surefire inclusions. Forza Lazio!
Sumber: lazio.theoffside.com
