Lazio midfielder Davide Frattesi has scored in each of his two Serie A appearances in 2026-27, with an average match rating of 8.00 across those fixtures — numbers that, two months into the season, are beginning to look less like a hot streak and more like a baseline.
The significance is structural. Ivan Gattuso's Lazio sit sixth in the table with six points from two matches, both won, conceding nothing. A clean sheet in each game tells one story about the team's defensive organisation; Frattesi's goals tell another about where the attacking impetus is coming from. When a central midfielder is the man making the difference in back-to-back 1-0 wins, the tactical dependency is worth naming plainly.
What separates this from a simple goal-scoring run is the rating attached to it. An 8.00 average across two matches is not the mark of a player who scored and disappeared — it suggests consistent involvement across the full 90 minutes, not just decisive moments. Frattesi, 26, is producing at a level that places him among the more influential midfielders in the early Serie A table, even if the sample is still small enough to warrant caution.
His AI overall of 71 out of 100, with a potential of 76, frames the broader question. The gap between current and ceiling is narrow — five points — which suggests a player approaching the upper range of his projected output rather than one still climbing toward it. That is not a criticism; it is context. A midfielder delivering at or near his ceiling in the opening weeks of a campaign is exactly what a title-contending side needs from a key player.
The squad movement around him adds texture. Boulaye Dia's departure to Rennes represents a permanent transfer, removing one attacking option from Gattuso's roster, which may concentrate even more of Lazio's creative and finishing responsibility on the midfield. Whether that increases Frattesi's workload or simply confirms a role he already holds is a question the next few fixtures will answer more clearly than any transfer headline.
Two matches is two matches. But a player who scores in both and does so inside a system that has yet to concede is not coasting on circumstance. Frattesi is, for now, the clearest evidence that Gattuso's Lazio are built to compete.