Top Ten Lazio Managers
- Lazio Stories
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Lazio has had 63 different managers, some for a long period of time and a few very briefly. We have attempted to create a top ten of the best head coaches Lazio has ever had.
Lazio has not come second very often, just four times. The first time was in the 1936-37 season when they went very close to the first scudetto. Lazio started really well and at the end of the first part of the campionato were first with a two-point lead over Bologna. They had beaten Juventus and Milan and drawn away against Inter and Bologna. They lost the lead immediately after and dropped down to fifth place due to a number of injuries. But they recovered in the last games and managed to arrive second behind the mighty Bologna. A fantastic season for the Biancocelesti, the best in their history so far and until the victorious 1973-74 scudetto.
The manager was Jozsef Violak, or Giuseppe Viola as he was known in Italy. Born in Hungary, on June 10, 1896, former player, he arrived in the capital for the last three games of the 1935-36 season. He left to coach Milan after 19 games of the 1937-38 season. He was the first manager to coach Juventus, Inter and the Rossoneri.
May 26, 2013, Lazio win the Coppa Italia against Roma with a Senad Lulic goal. A landmark in the history of the club. Vladimir Petković was the manager.
Born in Sarajevo, on August 15, 1963, he was a surprise choice as head coach in 2012. He had a lengthy experience in Switzerland but for the Italian media he was an unknown. Lazio did very well in the first half of the season and after half the fixture list the Biancocelesti were 2nd. They faded away in the second part, but the win in the Coppa Italia derby made the season an almost triumphant one. He did not do so well in the 2013-14 season and was fired after 17 matches. He went on to coach Switzerland and is currently head coach for Algeria.
A former player, Petković is a manager who likes attacking football. His tactical preferences are 3-4-3, 5-4-1 and 4-1-4-1 (usually used at Lazio). He is known for his tactical adaptability and for being an innovator, always looking to find new solutions, also with the help of technology. He is a man of culture and is nicknamed "The Doctor", as he also speaks six languages. He is calm, well spoken and elegant making him highly respected in the football world. He will certainly always be respected at Lazio.
Despite not being great fans of Inzaghi, there is no doubt that Lazio played some beautiful football under his management. He is also the manager with the highest number of matches as coach in Biancoceleste history. He even brought trophies: a Coppa Italia (2019 vs Atalanta) and twice the Super Coppa (2017, 2019 both vs Juventus). He is the only person to have won both domestic cups as a player and manager. He also has the longest unbeaten run at Lazio, 21 games.
Once he retired as a player, he went into the Lazio youth sector and did well winning two U19's Coppa Italia and a Super Coppa. In 2015-16 he was promoted to the first team for the last seven matches following Stefano Pioli's sacking. The following year the new manager was supposed to be charismatic Argentinian Marcelo Bielsa but the "El Loco", living up to his reputation, resigned even before arriving. Plan B came into action and it was Simone Inzaghi. The rest is history
He favours the 3-5-2 formation which can transform into a 5-3-2 when not in possession. On the down side he received criticism for his inability to read games and make corrective changes in negative situations.
His departure from Lazio was rather controversial as he left for Inter. In Milan he won a scudetto (and probably lost two).
Jesse Carver was a former English player turned manager. He was surprisingly called to Juventus in 1949-50 and even more surprisingly won the scudetto for the Old Lady after 15 years. His first spell at Lazio began in January 1956 in place of Roberto Copernico. The Biancocelesti were 13th and he took them to third place by the end of the season.
Having arrived in Italy as an apostle of British football culture—then regarded as the benchmark both in tactical innovation and training methods—Carver placed great emphasis on physical preparation as the foundation of his footballing philosophy. He adapted quickly to the Italian game, applying the principles of the WM formation with considerable flexibility. Rather than adopting a rigid, man-to-man marking system across the entire pitch, the Englishman retained elements of the zonal positioning characteristic of the traditional Italian Metodo (WW), which he had already done during his time at Juventus. He also introduced the role of the tracking winger, requiring wide players to drop back and reinforce the defence.
After another third place in 1956-57, he left for Inter but returned in 1961 as technical director to give Enrique Flamini a hand in a disastrous season. It did not go well. However the two consecutive third places were almost miraculous considering the financial issues the club was having.
Mario Sperone arrived after ten games of the 1948-49 season when they only had four points. The first match was Lazio-Bologna on November 21, 1948. Bologna had won the scudetto the previous season and had never lost a game so far. Lazio had never won. Nobody would have expected what was to happen. The Biancocelesti destroyed Bologna 8-2 and that season came 10th despite the very bad start.
What followed were two magnificent years where Lazio reached consecutive 4th places behind the great powers of the North, Milan, Inter and Juventus. The team was characterised by a strong defence (the iron defence it was called) with Lucidio Sentimenti IV in goal and defenders Zeffiro Furiassi, Francesco Antonazzi, Stefano Malacarne, Romolo Alzani, Vittorio Sentimenti III and Leandro Remondini. An excellent Lazio, historically one of the best. His second stint did not go so well.
Sperone was a follower of the mezzo-sistema, a reinterpretation, Italian style, of the classic British WM. It was first adopted by the Great Torino of the late 1940s and was more flexible than the WM. Strictly defensive, the formation was a 1-3-3-3, creating scoring opportunities with the counterattack, with long balls after winning back possession. He was a great manager and Lazio thrived under him especially in his first stint. The two consecutive 4th places were the best the Biancocelesti could achieve in those years.
Mancio came vey early in managerial career to Lazio and was full of ideas but he quickly had to deal with the loss of Alessandro Nesta and Hernan Crespo. However, Lazio played great football and even led the Serie A but it did not last. They however did qualify for the Champions League with a fourth place.
The club’s troubles in the 2003-04 season marred the season and Lazio did not make it to CL but in Coppa Italia the Biancocelesti returned to playing spectacularly and won the cup. The 4-0 win in the semifinal against Milan is probably one of the best games Lazio has ever played.
In Rome Mancini used the classic 4-4-2. He did try a 3-5-3 but the players were not happy about it, it was not working and he dropped it. A pity Mancio left in controversial circumstances, but we cannot forget the great football his team produced.
Delio Rossi arrived at Lazio for the 2004-05 season. Having developed as a coach under the influence of Zdeněk Zeman, whose work he admired during their time at Foggia, Delio Rossi gradually refined and broadened his footballing philosophy. He remains a beloved figure among Lazio supporters not only for the attractive football his teams played, but above all for his personal qualities. His straightforward manner, combined with a preference for speaking only when he had something meaningful to say, made him a reassuring presence for a fanbase still coming to terms with the end of the lavish Cragnotti era and the beginning of the far more restrained period ushered in by president Claudio Lotito.
With Lazio he won a Coppa Italia, reached a Champions League qualification and would have reached a UEFA Cup one if there had not been a point docking for Calciopoli. All of this with a team that was not exceptional, but they all gave 100% and this made the difference.
In the summer of 1986 Lazio, in Serie B, were given a docking of nine points. Fascetti had a meeting with the players. The season was still to start, with the exception of a few Coppa Italia games. He told them “This is the situation. You can leave, and it would be perfectly normal if you did, or stay and fight. Decide”. All the players stayed. And that season became legend.
After doing so well in the first part that the Biancocelesti were closer to promotion than relegation, then started to slow down in the second part and at 7 minutes from the end of the final game, Lazio Vicenza, it was still 0-0 and the Biancocelesti were in Serie C. Then Giuliano Fiorini’s goal gave them a life line: Play-offs to avoid relegation. Lazio lost the first game with a goal in blatant off-side but won the second thanks to a Fabio Poli goal. The -9 team would all be heroes and remembered forever. Aside from the romantic part, the team played very well in a classic 4-4-2.
This was repeated in the next season which saw Lazio get promoted to Serie A despite a difficult start. Still spectacular football considered the actors involved and the category. But in the summer of 1988 he had a massive argument with President Gianmarco Calleri and he was shown the door.
In his career Fascetti managed to win promotion to Serie A five times with five different teams: Lecce, Lazio, Torino, Verona and Bari. Plus, a promotion to Serie B with Varese. But his masterpiece was keeping Lazio alive despite the -9-point penalisation (considering two points per victory) and for this we will be eternally grateful.
Eriksson is the most successful Lazio manager of all time: a Scudetto, 2 Coppa Italia's, 2 Italian Supercups, a European Super Cup and a European Cup Winners Cup. As a manager Eriksson was initially influenced by his mentor Tord Grip and followed the English style of play. He then obviously evolved through his foreign experiences. He favoured a 4-4-2 formation but did adapt to a 4-5-1 from his third year at Lazio. His teams were compact, playing the ball a lot with continuous passes. He used pressing and a basic form of zonal marking and always tried to take advantage of the wings. His teams often seemed to find a good balance between tactical organization and a freedom, especially for the more talented players, to invent, create and express their skills.
At Lazio he is adored. When Lazio were nine points behind Juventus with not so many games left in the 1999-00 season, he was one of the few who still believed the dream was possible, and he was right. The Lazio faithful loved his aplomb, elegance, optimism and calm character.
If nowadays José Mourinho in many ways mirrors the “Roma way”, Eriksson represented the “Lazio style” well. In his years at Lazio he had the merit, with his balance and flexibility, to have managed to get great players with strong personalities to all play for the same cause and how they played, a wonderful team to watch.
Maestrelli is considered Lazio’s best manager ever. He is the most respected and the most loved.
He arrived in 1971 with Lazio in Serie B. First year promotion, second year third place and almost scudetto, third year scudetto. After his illness in 1975 the team literally collapsed. To the players he was a coach, a father, a friend, a priest and more and the possibility of losing him put football into the background. His health improved and was able to stir the Biancocelesti to an almost impossible survival in 1976.
He has almost cult status. His greatest virtue was his ability to unite a bunch of crazy characters, divided into clans during the week, into a formidable, compact and spectacular team on match day. He did so with his intelligence, his mellow character, his flexibility, his deep understanding of human psychology all combined with a superb footballing brain. He created a family at Lazio.
To Lazio fans he is simply "Il Maestro". His name is sung to the heavens every home game, as it is in the official Lazio song. The line more or less goes, "Come on Lazio we cannot falter, the Maestro is up above watching us" (it rhymes in Roman…).
Irreplaceable.
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