Libor Kozák (confirmed post #190)

[Olneythelonely]

Can't we exchange these jokes for different ones?

[danlanza]

Roma and Lazio play in the same stadium, Right ?
Why is it that when Roma play there is very little trouble. When Lazio play the Curd Nord is populated by Nazi loving spunk bubbles who are controlled by some twat with a megaphone shouting political shite ? Just a question like.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/nov/29/roma-fans-banned-tottenham-attack

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1405358/eight-wounded-in-fan-violence-before-rome-derby?cc=5739

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/champions-league/4979396/Arsenal-fan-attack-puts-Romes-Champions-League-final-date-under-fresh-scrutiny.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=99834&page=1

I don't know. Tell us.

That is European games, not bar one Italian domestic games. And Lazio and Roma always kick off, same as us and Blose.
Sorry ,bar two games. That walk across that bridge is dangerous, been there 3 times myself. Get there early is the answer and when English clubs play there it is a mixture of both Roma and Lazio idiots doing the stabbing.

[dave.woodhall]

Roma and Lazio play in the same stadium, Right ?
Why is it that when Roma play there is very little trouble. When Lazio play the Curd Nord is populated by Nazi loving spunk bubbles who are controlled by some twat with a megaphone shouting political shite ? Just a question like.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/nov/29/roma-fans-banned-tottenham-attack

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1405358/eight-wounded-in-fan-violence-before-rome-derby?cc=5739

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/champions-league/4979396/Arsenal-fan-attack-puts-Romes-Champions-League-final-date-under-fresh-scrutiny.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=99834&page=1

I don't know. Tell us.

That is European games, not bar one Italian domestic games.

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/seriea/story/hellas-verona-travels-home-by-train-after-bus-attacked-by-roma-fans-violence-090213

http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/01/21/idINIndia-31512220080121

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2305961/Roma-v-Lazio-Fans-stabbed-brutal-clashes-police-mar-Rome-derby.html

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/seriea/story/nine-arrested-after-coppa-italia-violence-in-rome-052713

[Dave Cooper please]

Can't we exchange these jokes for different ones?

Don't bank on it.

[pauliewalnuts]

Can't we exchange these jokes for different ones?

Don't bank on it.

I reckon we should sign that Ross Barkley. He'd sort it.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'll give up on trying to get a Spear of Destiny joke in. And just post the song instead.

[Dave]

Libor - I don't rate him

I have no interest in him.

He'll be fine, as long as we ease him in gently.

[danlanza]

Libor - I don't rate him

I have no interest in him.

He'll be fine, as long as we ease him in gently.

He is not a new Porn actor you know.

[Mister E]

Libor - I don't rate him

I have no interest in him.

D'you think Sir Merve had some role in his move?

[not3bad]

Lambert talking about resting Benteke, so Libor might get his chance soon:

http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/aston-villa/news/lambert-benteke-may-need-rest_103197.html

[eastie]

Interesting piece from mat kendrick-

Wherever he was on transfer deadline day former Lazio star Simone Inzaghi was probably breathing a big sigh of relief.

Now a coach at the Rome club’s academy the striker, capped three times by Italy, is their record goalscorer in European competition with 20 goals. It was widely believed that total was safe – virtually unreachable for anyone.

Next best was Tommaso Rocchi, stuck on 12 after his nine-year stay in the Italian capital ended with a move to Inter Milan in January.

But Inzaghi could have been forgiven for getting a little twitchy last season when Libor Kozak brought his European total to 11 as Lazio reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Those strikes came in just 18 matches, meaning his average was 0.6 goals per game. Indeed the giant Czech was the top scorer in the tournament for 2012-13 ahead of the likes of Edinson Cavani and Fernando Torres.

Sometimes numbers say it all and Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert must have munched a few poignant statistics before acquiring Kozak’s services for Ł7 million.

Kozak has shown that, provided the right amount of game time and enough space, he’s able to score goals against Europe’s finest – namely Sporting Lisbon, Panathinaikos, Borussia Moenchengladbach and Stuttgart.

Sceptics maliciously state that he didn’t find the target in Italy’s Serie A last season.

But if you consider the pecking order at Lazio (Miroslav Klose, Sergio Floccari), the system (4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1) and the infamously tight Italian defences, then it’s not all his fault.

Libor Kozak celebrates after scoring for Lazio
Kozak needed and needs minutes on the pitch to be at his best – but in the previous seasons he has showed that he can make the most of the few chances he gets. In the 2010-11 season many sat up and took notice as he netted five times in his first 12 appearances.

But most of his goals were coming off the bench. By that point, in February, Kozak had managed just 504 minutes of action to be precise.

This meant that he had scored a goal every 100 minutes and 48 seconds, better than people like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Samuel Eto’o and Antonio Di Natale.

In a stalemate against AC Milan, the Rossoneri’s CEO Adriano Galliani complained about the striker’s attitude against opposing defenders stating that he had “flogged defenders for the whole game.”

In fact, he spent the game trying to defend the few balls he got in the face of some tight and uncompromising man-marking.

In 2011-12 Kozak started just four matches and came off the bench in 13 more but still managed to score four times (one against Inter).

The craziest game that season was the one against Cesena where former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu and Vincenzo Iaquinta gave the guests a double lead.

Kozak entered the fray in the second half only to be replaced himself after 38 minutes – but not before scoring an incredible winner.

Then, last season he started just five games with 14 substitute appearances.

Clearly the most recent bosses during his time at Lazio, Edy Reja and Vladimir Petkovic, thought he worked best as an impact substitute as 14 of his 36 appearances in the last two seasons came in the last 15 minutes of the game.

Despite this, he still managed to score a brace against Fiorentina, Mura, Panathinaikos and a hat-trick against Stuttgart in the rare occasions in which he got a start.

Possibly neither Reja nor Petkovic found the way to deploy him in a proper strike partnership. Not even pairing him with former Birmingham forward Mauro Zarate worked well enough to earn him a regular starting spot.

His first manager in Roma, Delio Rossi (now at Sampdoria) was clearly unimpressed despite handling him his full debut in Turin against Juventus on the last day of the season in 2009, just one day after his 20th birthday.

When Kozak scored his first official goals in a Lazio shirt, Lazio president Claudio Lotito pointedly spoke in front of the cameras and stated that those goals were proving his critics wrong.

He didn’t mention Rossi but everyone knew that Lazio’s former manager had once stated that Kozak couldn’t play football. In fact, he is one of the shrewd signings that has made “stingy” Lotito famous in Italy.

Lazio’s president turned a very healthy profit this week after capturing him for a mere Ł1m in February 2008, after Kozak failed to impress Harry Redknapp in a trial at Portsmouth in Pompey’s FA Cup winning season – with the now QPR manager possibly expecting him to be the next Peter Crouch.

Kozak had scored 11 goals in 26 games with Opava, managing to top the goalscoring chart in the Czech second division, but clearly that wasn’t enough.

When he joined Lazio some fans were happy, because scrolling down the pages on Wikipedia, they found out that he was born on May 30, the date arch-rivals Roma infamously lost the European Cup on penalties against Liverpool in 1984. Kozak was born five years later to the date and it was considered as a positive omen.

Ultimately though he could not bear another season spent mostly on the bench – especially after netting his first goal with the Czech Republic against Hungary in the summer.

At Villa Park – where Lazio famously won the last ever Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999 – Kozak will fulfil his boyhood dream of playing in the Premier League. And hopefully for Villa fans, he’ll get more time on the pitch to fulfill his goalscoring potential.

[cheltenhamlion]

Its not quite in agreement with Archie but a Lazio fan I know reckons he is like Big John but with a better attitude to his profession. That would do for me.

[eamonn]

Seems to be an easy target to substitute cos he's so bloody nice.

[Percy McCarthy]

We could do with Colin Murray and that muppet from 4-4-2 taking the piss like they did with Benteke.

[pauliewalnuts]

Its not quite in agreement with Archie but a Lazio fan I know reckons he is like Big John but with a better attitude to his profession. That would do for me.

Interesting reading the views of those who watch more Italian football than we do, and his record in domestic football there is pretty unimpressive.

However, you do sometimes find players who just don't prosper in the game in certain countries (which could be why he has such a good record in European competition). Long time ago, obv, but remember Ian Rush here, and Ian Rush at Juventus.

I am impressed, though, that Lambert has clearly scouted him out a while ago, spent a long while making the signing happen, and delivered him, so I look forward to seeing what he can do.