Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri was concerned that his team switched off in their 4-0 loss to Napoli yesterday.
Speaking first in an interview with Italian broadcaster DAZN (via La Lazio Siamo Noi) after the game, the 62-year-old Italian coach discussed the Biancocelesti’s painful defeat at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last night.
The team had made some steps forward, it’s usual every four or five games there’s some games of this type. Napoli played a great game, I think it is superior even to the others in the top league.
There’s little to say, they were in perennial difficulty. The approach was not right, we put ourselves in difficulty for the first two goals. It’s a match with no recriminations.
The Lazio coach touched on the limits of his squad and the impact such a busy schedule has.
It’s not a matter of communication, but of timing, of team pressure. We did it one by one, we did it individually. I see a team that struggles to stay on strong levels of activation and application.
Playing every three days is more difficult, we go from ten to one, this is not acceptable. You can’t leave a midfielder free, you can leave a full back free.
The transitions weren’t done the right way. We were always coming in late.
Sarri highlighted his disappointment at the team’s mental drop in the defeat.
There’s no need to be pessimistic or optimistic, you have to understand where these ups and downs come from and try to put them right.
Tonight I expected everything but this kind of competition. The problem is the disconnection I saw, not so much the defeat. Against Napoli you can lose.
He touched on the disappointing performance of Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson.
He’s a delicate object, when he switches off, he does it in an evening manner, as well as when he switches on. He’s in a down phase, this has always happened in his career.
We are trying to accompany him to a less fluctuating performance, but it is hard, it is a path.
The 62-year-old Italian coach touched on his emotions regarding his return to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
I tried to stay as calm as possible, two years ago I arrived here with a higher emotional level.
I have it in my heart, I like the city, the Neapolitans, it’s not a normal city for me.
Sarri then discussed the performance in an interview with Lazio Style Radio.
There is little that is positive. I had the feeling of a team off, it happens to us cyclically and it’s problematic.
We met a strong team, the one that impressed me the most from a technical point of view. But we caused our own problems, we weren’t very bad. We play 3-4 good games and then we fall back.
It will be something to resolve because it involves several things and mentality is the most important.
From the point of view of application, determination, attention and from the mental point of view something is definitely missing.
The Lazio coach discussed the team’s inconsistent form when playing home or away.
I don’t think it’s accidental. We talked at length, it seemed like a problem that was being solved because we drew in Marseille and Bergamo and won in Russia.
Then you fight back against these situations, tonight everything amplified by the strength of the opponents. In the first two goals we put ourselves in trouble, the approach was not the right one.
It’s not a moment in which we have to look at the ranking, if we don’t find continuity the ranking will always be this one.
We have to create a mentality whereby our performances are always at a high level. At an individual level, there are some situations to evaluate carefully, one or two, but it’s part of normality.
Over the course of the season one goes up and down in terms of position. It scares me more that we fall into total disconnection games.
He highlighted how the team failed to produce much in the second half.
We had to react from all points of view, then the game was very difficult to pull back.
They knock you out because they have an impressive dribbling ability, however, the reaction was low.
Sarri then discussed the 4-0 loss to Napoli when speaking to gathered reporters in a press conference after the match.
We were clearly inferior to the opponent because we played a game like we do sometimes. We play 4 or 5 good games and then we fall back on the mistakes.
If you play a game like that against a team that has the quality of Napoli’s dribbling, the difference comes out big.
We were always late, always off, passive. With the dribblers they have, the difference is profound.
Finally, Sarri discussed if the loss to Napoli forces him to re-work his project a little and how it helps guide his work.
Where to go to work becomes difficult analysing these types of games. When a team always arrives late, makes the movement late, the rest of the team does not follow the pressure, it seems to me more a speech of mental activation than a tactical speech.
This team, when it doesn’t manage to recharge itself well from the point of view of nervous energy, plays games like this.
It happened to us other times and unfortunately history is repeating itself. Then with Napoli we saw tonight, we can lose even if we played a very good game.
The worrying aspect is that this team manages to keep the right emotional tension for 3-4 games and then has a deep, sharp drop.
They don’t go from 10 to 8, from 10 to 1 and this is an aspect that worries us.
