Gattuso takes aim at critics as he follows Italy debacle with a revival at unbeaten Lazio

ROME (AP) — Six months after presiding over Italy’s third straight failure to qualify for the World Cup, Gennaro Gattuso is taking aim at his critics during an unbeaten start at Lazio in Serie A.

Known for his grit and determination as a midfielder on the Italy team that won the World Cup in 2006, Gattuso said he’s not given enough credit for his attacking style as a coach.

“I’m a prisoner of my own persona,” Gattuso said. “I played for a lifetime and managed to win a few things — thanks to my character and the way I do things. It’s only natural when you have a nickname like ‘Ringhio’ (Snarl), it’s inevitable that you get branded with it. But this is a different line of work.”

Gattuso defended his coaching record and pointed to near misses for Champions League qualification when he coached AC Milan, the club he also played for, and Napoli.

Gattuso took over Italy from the fired Luciano Spalletti with the Azzurri already in crisis mode and was on the bench in March for a penalty shootout loss in a playoff at Bosnia and Herzegovina that left the four-time champion out of this year’s World Cup.

He was hired by Lazio in June after Maurizio Sarri left the Roman club for Atalanta. Expectations were low for Lazio after a ninth-place finish last season and another modest showing in the transfer market but the team has been transformed under Gattuso.

Through five rounds, Lazio is level with Italian league leaders Roma and Inter Milan.

Amid a fan boycott aimed at club owner Claudio Lotito, Lazio has dropped points only in a 2-2 draw with Milan.

Two of the players who were on Gattuso’s Italy squad have been key. Attacking midfielder Davide Frattesi has scored three goals since being loaned from Inter back to the club he spent most of his youth career with and Mattia Zaccagni has been a force on the left flank.

Nuno Tavares has been playing so well at left back — linking up often with Zaccagni — that Gattuso said the Portugal defender is “worthy of playing for Real Madrid.

“He’s (strong) with his left foot and right foot and has speed,” Gattuso said.

Then there’s goalkeeper Christos Mandas, who has kept three clean sheets and saved a penalty from Venezia winger John Yeboah with the score 0-0 before Lazio went on to win 2-0 Saturday.

With Sarri preferring Ivan Provedel, Mandas was loaned to Bournemouth for the second half of last season but didn’t play in England either.

Tijjani Noslin has scored in two straight matches and Reda Belahyane has taken over at playmaker after hardly featuring under Marco Baroni and Sarri.

“The guys really believe in what we’re doing and we’re displaying continuity,” Gattuso said. “A lot of players who were struggling last season are making an impact now.”

The signing of forwards Andrea Pinamonti (from Sassuolo) and Albert Gudmundsson (loaned from Fiorentina) led Gattuso to reject the chance to sign former Inter and Paris Saint-Germain striker Mauro Icardi.

“Nobody can put up for discussion the value of a player who has scored more than 250 goals in their career,” Gattuso said. “But we made deals for Pinamonti and Gudmundsson and there’s no use in acquiring players if you need to leave others out.”

Another Serie A surprise has been Cagliari, which is one point behind the leaders.

Daniel Maldini, the son of former Italy defender Paolo Maldini, has scored in three straight matches.

Maldini was involved in an auto accident after his winner against Atalanta this month and faced reports of alcohol and drug abuse. He claimed the reports were proved wrong by medical exams — the results of which he posted on social media.

Despite the controversy, Maldini came back a week later and scored in a 1-0 win at Udinese last weekend and has also been called up to Italy’s team for the Nations League.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the final round before the international break was Como’s 2-0 defeat at promoted Frosinone, which has lost only once.

Frosinone features five members of Italy’s under-21 side, including goalkeeper Lorenzo Palmisani, who stopped all eight of Como’s shots on goal.

“We came up against a goalkeeper who made saves that you don’t often see,” Como coach Cesc Fabregas said after his club — which recently had a successful Champions League debut — lost for the first time in five months.

Also of note in Serie A is that there has not been a single 0-0 draw so far this season.

Refereeing coordinator Daniele Orsato has emphasized less use of the VAR (video assistant referee) and the result has been more minutes of play and more goals.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Frosinone's Giorgi Kvernadze, right, celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Frosinone and Como in Frosinone, Italy, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Lazio's head coach Gennaro Gattuso calls out to his players during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and AC Milan, in Rome, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — An attacker opened fire near a high school in western Turkey on Tuesday and wounded at least 11 people, officials said. The suspected shooter was arrested.

At least two of the injured were in serious condition, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said in a statement on X.

The attack took place in front of a vocational and technical high school in Turgutlu district, in Manisa province, the provincial governor's office said. Police and medical teams were immediately sent to the scene.

HaberTurk news channel said the assailant was a 15-year-old student at the school. The report added that he arrived at the scene armed with a shotgun he took from his grandmother's house and fired randomly near the school before trying to flee the scene on foot.

The motive of the attack was not known, according to Gurlek, who said two chief prosecutors were appointed to investigate the shooting, including claims that the student was bullied at the school.

The assailant's parents and grandfather, who owned the gun, were taken into custody as part of the investigation, Gurlek said.

Security camera video showed the alleged shooter walking down a street carrying a weapon. Another video showed him running down a street, still carrying the weapon.

Anxious parents rushed to the school and confrontations broke out between them and police who blocked the entrance to the building, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

The attack came months after Turkey was shocked by two school shootings this year. The government increased security at educational facilities at the start of the academic year last week.

In April, 16 people, mostly students, were wounded when a former student opened fire at a high school in Sanliurfa province in Turkey's southeast. The assailant later killed himself.

The next day, a 14-year-old student opened fire on two classrooms at his school in nearby Kahramanmaras province, killing eight students and a teacher and wounding 13 others. The attacker was killed by police.

People walk past a vocational and technical high school in the Turgutlu district of Manisa province, western Turkey, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, after a gunman opened fire near the school. (IHA via AP)