Sampdoria winger Antonio Candreva fondly remembered his time at Lazio and looked ahead to tomorrow’s match.
Speaking in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport (via LazioNews24) earlier today, the 34-year-old Italian winger first commented on the memories of his time with the Biancocelesti and the team’s slow start to life under coach Maurizio Sarri.
I spent four and a half wonderful years there, I won’t hide it. Lazio gave me so much and I tried to give them more, they are in my heart and I continue to follow them. Now they’re in a phase of transformation.
We’re in December but we need time, there are young players and others who have never played like this, they come from five years of a certain kind of football with Inzaghi. It is difficult.
Time seems to be an alibi, an excuse. The fans don’t accept waiting. In the end, however, patience counts.
We need to work well to form an identity, now we need more training sessions than matches. If you play a lot and don’t train, you don’t have time to read the matches and understand the mistakes made.
Candreva looked ahead to tomorrow’s match against Lazio.
We will find an angry and hungry Sampdoria, we’re coming from a defeat. However, we know we’re facing a great team.
They are not going through a brilliant period, but they have strong players, with an important path. So far they’ve shown Lazio-like games and others that are normal or not Lazio-like.
A difficult match.
The Sampdoria winger touched on his relationship with former Biancocelesti coach Edy Reja.
Great Edy. He loved me from the start. He believed in me after a complicated start from an environmental point of view and on the pitch. I was young, I was 24 years old.
Reja gave me peace of mind and took the pressure off me even though things didn’t start well.
Then the idea of placing me on the right side of the pitch, where my career began, was fundamental.
He commented on the strengths of Lazio talisman Ciro Immobile, who became the club’s all-time top scorer earlier this season.
Tomorrow he will be the number one danger, but there are also other strong players in Lazio. It seems crazy to me to discuss Ciro, not only for the goals. I have no words.
People underestimate his work. He presses, he attacks the depth 750 thousand times. I don’t know. It is unthinkable to criticise a striker who scores 30 goals a season.
Finally, Candreva spoke about the progress and inconsistency of Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson.
I will say welcome back to him. He made the right choice by returning to Italy and, above all, to Lazio. He’s a great guy, positive and sensitive. I think he needs to believe in himself more.
He has important qualities, he’s already shown them. He needs to find more consistency, he just needs that to make the leap in quality.
The 34-year-old Candreva, who is contracted to Sampdoria until 2024, has made 15 Serie A appearances so far this season, for a total of 1347 minutes. In that time, he has scored six goals and provided six assists, being Sampdoria’s top scorer this campaign.
