

FolioPitch.com – 19 October 2026 | Gennaro Gattuso believes that Gattuso Lazio progress we can surprise if we take it one game at a time is the mantra driving his side’s remarkable Serie A campaign, after the Aquile secured a stunning 3-0 victory away to Juventus on Saturday. The result, Lazio’s first win in Turin since October 2017, lifted them to 19 points from seven matches, level with joint leaders Inter and officially the best start in the club’s history — surpassing even their 1999/2000 Scudetto-winning season.
Oliver Provstgaard headed the opener, Gustav Isaksen doubled the lead, and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru sealed the rout with a lung-busting run from his own half late on. The win came despite injuries ruling out Albert Gudmundsson, Matteo Cancellieri, Nicolò Rovella, Alessio Furlanetto and Adam Marusic, and it extended Lazio’s impressive run to six wins and a dramatic 2-2 draw with Milan.
Speaking to DAZN Italia after the match, Gattuso was quick to deflect praise onto his players. “It is the first time I’ve won here since I started doing this profession,” he said. “My staff and I propose ideas, but it’s the lads who put it into practice, so they deserve the credit. We push hard in training, but we’ve created a real family unit here. The club also deserves compliments, as we had little money for the transfer market, but we went looking for good people who were determined, who wanted to come here at all costs.”
The coach, however, was adamant that his team must not get carried away by their lofty league position. “We mustn’t look at the table right now,” he insisted. “We’ll enjoy this marvellous victory, but then heads down and back to work ahead of Parma. We’re not accustomed to being up there, and maybe we’re not ready to be either, but if we take it one game at a time, we can surprise people.” That philosophy — Gattuso Lazio progress we can surprise if we take it one game at a time — has become the rallying cry for a squad that many had written off before a ball was kicked.
Lazio’s season began inauspiciously with an early exit from the Coppa Italia and difficulties in the transfer market, but Gattuso has engineered a remarkable turnaround. Against Juventus, he outmanoeuvred Luciano Spalletti by overloading the wings, while his defensive line caught the Bianconeri offside six times. “The mentality and hunger were important,” Gattuso noted. “We went into the half-time break 1-0 up, we ran risks in the games against Milan and Venezia, but this time I think we took another step forward in terms of controlling the match.”
Yet the 48-year-old was not entirely satisfied, highlighting areas for improvement. “I felt like we should’ve done better in the first half, Romano could’ve attacked Alajbegovic better, while Belahyane didn’t create the width he could’ve done with our full-backs,” he explained. “Lazio press constantly, we are not afraid to play man for man, but the biggest concern was that against Milan and Venezia we were dominant and then just stopped. This is why I feel this is progress, because we are all or nothing, we don’t yet have the maturity to control a lead. That is why we’ve always got to push with vehemence, as it’s what took us to this success.”
Provstgaard revealed after the game that he had never experienced an atmosphere and team spirit like the one at Lazio’s Formello training ground, prompting questions about how Gattuso has fostered such unity. “I said that I didn’t want to be a coach anymore because I’ve been a player, so every time I saw certain attitudes, I’d go home with a bellyache,” Gattuso admitted. “I worked on myself, there are two or three things that I am intransigent on, but the rest I listen to the players, I don’t get as angry with them. With phones and devices, that’s the world they live in now and I have to accept that. The things I do stick to, they need to follow and that’s it. I think that is the secret. My experiences abroad also helped me learn about different mentalities, as they all have different personalities, and I speak to them during the work, try to put them in the best condition to express themselves.”
He added: “Players are more evolved now than they were in my day, but the difference is they tend to give up at the first sign of difficulty, so it’s about not letting them give up, reminding them the importance of training in a certain way and recovering properly.”
The victory was celebrated in front of a sizable contingent of Lazio ultras, who have been boycotting home games for months in protest at President Claudio Lotito. Their presence in Turin added to the occasion, and Gattuso’s men were clearly determined to reward their support. The coach’s message remains unwavering: Gattuso Lazio progress we can surprise if we take it one game at a time. It is a sentiment that resonates deeply with a fan base craving success after years of turbulence.
With the international break looming, Lazio will look to maintain their momentum against Parma, fully aware that the Serie A table makes for pleasant reading but offers no guarantees. Gattuso’s side have shown they can mix it with the best, but the challenge now is to sustain that level. As the coach himself put it, the key is to take it one game at a time — a simple yet powerful approach that has already yielded historic results. If Lazio continue to heed that advice, few would bet against them pulling off a genuine surprise in the race for the Scudetto. The Gattuso Lazio progress we can surprise if we take it one game at a time ethos may just be the foundation upon which something special is built.
Ahonui Stanford Damar somehow turned a literature degree into a career writing news—maybe because fiction and breaking news both require a healthy dose of imagination. Based in Tangerang since 2011, he balances his journalistic cyn
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