Lazio midfielder Luis Alberto was mostly calm following the painful 4-0 Coppa Italia loss to Milan last night.
Speaking first to Sky Sports Italia (via LazioNews24) after the match, the Spaniard reacted to the match against the Rossoneri.
We were coming from a moment of growth that was lacking today from the start. We didn’t have rhythm and personality and you pay for that against a team like Milan.
At the beginning it could have been due to the change of coach and way of playing, but today this doesn’t apply, we had to be more aggressive. Today we lacked everything. We have to look ahead to Saturday’s game.
Luis Alberto then touched on why he didn’t start against Milan yesterday.
I don’t have to play for my place, I didn’t start today because of a shared choice. I’m calm and growing.
Slowly everything will come together, I have no problem with Sarri.
Luis Alberto then discussed the match in an interview with Lazio Style Radio.
We were not calm and as mentally focused as in the last period and against Milan you pay for that, especially in the first half where we did nothing.
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The Lazio midfielder looked ahead to this Saturday’s league match against Bologna.
We know that against Bologna is a very important match, it can give us a lot of confidence for the European fight.
After this defeat we know we have to put in a good performance and win at home in front of our fans.
We mustn’t forget the first match against them. Today was bad but I think we’re doing well and we have to remember that.
The 28-year-old Spaniard commented on his physical condition.
In the last 4-5 games I’ve felt good, I’m improving a lot and I’ve found the necessary freshness to play my football with the ball.
I always say that in order to play well we need to have possession. With Fiorentina we had 70% ball possession and we won.
Finally, Luis Alberto discussed the team’s continued growth and what needs to be done now.
Today we didn’t apply ourselves, we’re in February and we can no longer say that we’re under construction. We’ve been saying this for 6-7 months but it’s enough now.
We showed it against Fiorentina, we had to be more careful on Milan’s counter-attacks and be more aggressive. We must always show that we are a great team, we cannot be so erratic.
The 29-year-old Luis Alberto, who is contracted to Lazio until 2025, has made 30 appearances across all competitions so far this season, for a total of 1912 minutes. In that time, he has scored three goals and provided six assists, slowly adapting to Sarri’s 4-3-3 system.