Edoardo “Edy” Reja returns to his post as Lazio coach after having relinquished it in May of 2012. The move to return to Rome is a startling one, especially considering the current state of the club today. In a way, the appointment of Reja and what it will mean for Lazio is more a reflection of their owner Claudio Lotito than anything else.
Lotito had never been fully on board with Reja’s resigning to begin with. So his re-appointment at the club seems more sentimental than anything else. In love much like in football, we often say to “never go back.” The advice seems very appropriate in this case.
Before Reja replaced Vladimir Petkovic, the Swiss coach had done very well in his first season, pushing a capable team to the finish line when Lazio won the Coppa Italia in the 2012-2013 season.
Petkovic had finished seventh in Serie A that year. Before than, Reja had finished fourth in the league, improving on his fifth place finish the year prior. In a lot of ways, Petkovic’s Coppa Italia victory very much symbolized the death throes of a Lazio team quickly running out of steam.
When Reja was appointed back in 2010 he got the best out of players like Cristian Ledesma, Stefano Mauri, and Mauro Zarate. Lotito also backed Reja with quality signings like Hernanes and Miroslav Klose. Most of this team today is gone however. Zarate has left after proving to be nothing more than a one-hit-wonder. Mauri and Ledesma have both seen their age catch up to them, Hernanes seems jaded, and Klose has struggled with injuries recently. Petkovic has added a few players who have contributed to the mix, with the likes of Antonio Candreva and Senad Lulic just about helping Lazio keep their head above water.
The fault resides with Lotito for the main part. The Lazio president seemed to have re-discovered his appetite for success upon Reja’s first appointment and during Petkovic’s tenure, but his most recent move back to Reja is incongruent with the club’s trajectory. In fact the club was on an upward curve with Reja, reached a summit in Petkovic’s Coppa Italia triumph, and has hit a plateau stage since. The danger in Lotito’s decision to bring back Reja is that it could precipitate a decline of the club.
No doomsday scenario here. Simply put, Lazio had achieved a certain level and the re-appointment of Reja following Petkovic could simply invalidate both men’s great work over the last few seasons. Reja is a good Serie A coach, with good ideas and he proved it during his time at Lazio as well as before when he promoted Napoli all the way to Serie A from Serie C1. The issue is not necessarily about the quality of Reja’s ideas, but the dogma in itself.
Reja tends to play one way and one way only. This is not a criticism on his style of play or lack of flexibility either however, as Petkovic only played one way as well. Although Petkovic’s style was slightly differed, it was based on the same fundamentals of collective defending and counter-attacking that Reja had his Lazio play. Petkovic’s style has been found out since his first successful season with Lazio, and so Reja’s might very well be too. In other words Reja is unlikely to be able to bring much to this Lazio side.
If Reja is unable to add much to Lazio, then the current state of the club and the nature Serie A today both compound that problem. The Lazio team Reja left is today a couple years older and slower. The defense is in shambles, without any real quality centre-backs there that would allow Reja to build a base around. The attack is toothless with a seemingly out-of-gas and often too isolated Klose. The statistics make for an even grimmer picture of this, with Lazio having scored 23 goals in their 18 league games so far and Klose being the team’s top-scorer with a paltry five.
The worse however is that Reja is returning to a different Serie A, with much more quality and exuberance to it. Serie A teams seem more devoted to attack and score goals as of late. Juventus have become a genuine juggernaut. Although AC Milan and Inter are very much in flux, teams like Napoli, Fiorentina, and Roma have improved manifolds. Finally, Reja returns to a Serie A now with more competition for only three Champions league qualifying spots.
So in this new environment and the present state of the team, the onus is not as much on Reja to make miracles. The fault already falls on Lotito’s head, who took a step back instead of looking ahead. Reja is a good coach, but he is the symbol of a different era of Italian football that coaches like Antonio Conte and Vicenzo Montella have relegated to an anachronism.
More so than the buying of players, the choice of the coaching transition is often the most important decision a club president must make. However, Lotito’s appointment of Reja seems to transpire a lack of idea and imagination.In fact, Lotito could have very much transformed the Aquile into an albatross mid-ascension: once majestic when in full flight, but now a hapless and clumsy bird when grounded.
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