Maurizio Sarri was clear with his Lazio squad after their embarrassing defeat to FC Midtjylland and his efforts seemingly drew the right response.
The Biancocelesti put in one of their worst European performances in years at the MCH Arena in Denmark last week, failing to Midtjylland 5-1. It was an incredibly painful defeat, especially after the team’s fairly solid start to the 2022-23 season, and Sarri did not want things to get out of hand.
As reported by Il Messaggero (via LazioNews24), Sarri gave a decisive speech to his Lazio squad after their defeat, underlining his disappointment and calling on them to respond properly in their following league match against Cremonese, which they did by winning 4-0.
He did not mince his words when talking to the players, expressing his frustration.
I’m disappointed because after 14 months of work, and after this good start, I expected to have made you understand that, only with application and without superficiality, you can achieve great goals.
Find out now how strong you are, you can make the leap by overcoming your limits. If you always give 100%, there’ll be no more of these drops. Otherwise, you’ll be left with great regrets.
In the two days after the Midtjylland, during their brief training retreat in Piacenza, Sarri was cold with the players and held no further speeches, wanting to see what responses they could give.
The players were ashamed, most of all squad leaders Ciro Immobile and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and their 4-0 win over Cremonese was the perfect response.
