Position: 2nd
Points: 74
Previous season: 5th, 64 points
Best Serie A scorer: Ciro Immobile, 12 goals in 31 appearances
Rating: 8/10
Season overview
All in all, it was a season of success for Lazio. A second-place finish, whilst unexpected, came as a result of the team’s growing implementation of ‘Sarrismo’, and their brief battles with inconsistency were quickly dealt with, allowing them to return to Europe’s premier club competition once again and secure their best Serie A finish since their Scudetto winning work in the 1999-2000 campaign. Things looked good from the very early stages of the season for Lazio. The team only suffered only one defeat in their first 11 league outings – to eventual winners Napoli – and picked up comfortable wins over Inter (3-1), Fiorentina (4-0) and Atalanta (2-0). Maurizio Sarri finished second despite competitors with higher transfer budgets and wage bills. On the European stage, things were predictably a little more lacklustre for the Biancocelesti. The team have been known to place little focus on the Europa and Conference League in order to focus on their Serie A objectives.
Turnaround moment
Heading into the World Cup break, things were mostly going to plan for Sarri and Lazio; the team sat third in the Serie A table, tied on points with Inter and three behind Milan. However, Lazio’s final eight games of the Serie A season saw them pick up points where it mattered, with wins over Sassuolo, Udinese, Cremonese and Empoli, allowing them to shake off their losses to Torino, Inter and Milan in the return leg at San Siro. The Roman outfit crept up the table and sneak into second place, helped by the 10-point deduction handed to Juventus.
The coach – Maurizio Sarri
Sarri’s first season in the Italian capital saw him and the Biancocelesti finish fifth in the table, six points behind fourth-place Juventus. An important summer transfer window followed, with Lazio picking up players like Alessio Romagnoli, Nicolo Casale and Ivan Provedel, players who would prove crucial in the charge to the Champions League. The former banker did the rest with big wins in Serie A, including two Rome derbies from two. He snubbed European competitions, true, but managed to return to the Champions League, a key target for the club, especially from the financial perspective.
Player of the Season – Ivan Provedel
The 29-year-old was an absolute bargain. He joined the Biancocelesti from Spezia for just €2.3m and was supposed the second-choice keeper at the Stadio Olimpico. However, Luis Maximiano received a straight red card six minutes into his Serie A debut, giving the ex-Spezia keeper a golden chance that he hasn’t wasted. Lazio conceded only 30 goals, just two more than the best defence in the league Napoli. Even more impressively, Provedel kept 21 clean sheets in 38 league matches, only Barcelona’s Marc-André ter Stegen managed more in Europe’s top 5 leagues with 26.
Disappointing player of the Season – Toma Basic
With just 32 appearances and 895 minutes played, the 26-year-old from Croatia had another disappointing season in the Capital. He was never a regular starter under Sarri and only scored one goal in 25 Serie A matches. He joined the Biancocelesti for €7m in 2021 but hasn’t done enough to prove he can challenge to compete at the Stadio Olimpico. It’s true that Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Luis Alberto are no easy competitors to beat, but the Spaniard wasn’t a regular starter either at the beginning of the campaign and has climbed the pecking order, becoming a key player once again.