Maurizio Sarri was very happy with Lazio’s performance in their 2-0 win over Sampdoria, praising a number of his players in particular.
The Biancocelesti secured a confident victory at the Stadio Olimpico yesterday as goals from Patric and Luis Alberto secured all three points. The team now hold the advantage in the race against Roma for a 5th place finish; the Giallorossi will face Fiorentina tomorrow evening and must win to keep on the pressure.
Speaking in a press conference (via La Lazio Siamo Noi) after the win over Sampdoria, Sarri first discussed Luka Romero’s potential and Luis Alberto’s quality goal.
I don’t need any Luka Romero highlights, I see him every day and for the age he is he looks like he could have an important career, but the changes from 17 to 20 aren’t the same for everyone so you have to keep your feet on the ground and hope that the change is the right one.
It seems to me that the boy has the right mentality, I am very confident. Luis Alberto rightly celebrated because he scored a goal that was out of his league in terms of technical quality and mental clarity in the shots he made. It seems right that he celebrates a goal of such rare beauty.
The coach then discussed how the ‘crazy Lazio’ seen in the win over Spezia weren’t visible against Sampdoria.
I don’t think Lazio were crazy in Spezia, tonight they were like that without three resounding shots. That’s not insignificant.
In Spezia the team had been orderly and basically we hadn’t conceded anything, we’d conceded two goals on free kicks and one by losing the ball to our last man, we hadn’t conceded anything in the opposition’s build-up.
Tonight we conceded very little and it seems to me that the team played with quality because at one point we had a great dribble, we played a serious game.
He discussed the condition of Pedro.
Pedro has a check-up on Monday, we hope they’ll give us the green light to put him back in the group. Unfortunately the point of the small injury is very delicate and dangerous for possible relapses.
Sarri spoke about the large number of fans present at the Stadio Olimpico yesterday.
The feeling is that the team is growing from all points of view. Even at the level of mentality, at the level of rhythms in training, which are becoming important.
As far as the fans are concerned, we can only thank them tonight. If the situation inside the Olimpico was always like this it would be a huge advantage for us.
Seeing a full stadium, cheering you on for 90 minutes, is great. If we manage to make them like us and manage to drag them in a little and the situation becomes like this all the time, that’s great.
He touched on if European commitments were a burden for the team.
European games are not a difficulty for us. On Sundays, if you look at the results of those who played on Thursday, there is an impressive percentage of defeats, and yet they should all be medium-high level teams.
So the only solution is to go to the Champions League and play on Tuesday or Wednesday, I don’t see any other solution.
Finally, Sarri discussed the growth of Manuel Lazzari, who went from possibly transfer listed in January to a consistent source of quality.
Lazzari is growing a lot on a tactical and defensive level. Tonight he also took away two or three headers inside the area, so that means he was clearly positioned.
He made a mistake in the first half in terms of alignment with his teammates, but he’s on an extremely positive path as far as departmental and individual defensive tactics are concerned and the most important aspect is that in this path he’s not losing his offensive qualities.
