Maurizio Sarri looked back at Lazio’s shock defeat to FC Midtjylland and the need for focus in their upcoming Europa League clash with Sturm Graz.
The Biancocelesti suffered a painful 5-1 loss to their Danish opposition in their last European outing, a match they’ll be hoping to put behind them with a stronger showing in Austria against Sturm Graz tonight. Their Austrian opposition have also had an inconsistent campaign in the Europa League so far, beating FC Midtjylland but being thrashed by Feyenoord.
Speaking in a press conference (via LazioNews24), Sarri first spoke about Lazio’s current form and their recent loss to FC Midtjylland.
Lazio are doing well, because they’ve been doing well since the start. They failed a match due to presumption and superficiality, thinking that then it would be easy.
In Europe it’s not like that, if you don’t give your best on a mental and physical level, you pay the consequences.
We come here to make up for it, since we failed because of presumption, the first aspect will be humility. Lazio have now played 10 games and failed in one of them, apart from that result, they have played the others well.
He touched on the physical condition of defender Alessio Romagnoli, who has immediately impressed in Rome.
We’ll decide for the match, we’re not interested in Florence at the moment. He’s come from a complicated season, he’s played little, he’s had lots of physical problems, adductor problems, pubalgia.
He has made a path to return to the condition he is in. He has also done important loads on this path and it doesn’t seem to me the case to put him at risk in the three weekly matches.
Now he’s starting at a very good level, but this morning we’ll decide who to play. Then, based on how they come out, we’ll think about who to play in Florence.
The 63-year-old Italian coach commented on the team’s level after their strong start to the season.
We are at the beginning, a little further ahead from a tactical point of view because seven or eight played steadily last year and seven or eight are new.
As far as mentality is concerned, we’re starting from scratch. The biggest mistake the players could do would be to listen to those who talk about the Scudetto.
Unfortunately Rome specialises in exaltation and then returning to the dust. We have to be competitive before we can be winners, because to be competitive we still have a lot of work to do. We’re thinking about the game, which will be a tough match, and forget about certain speeches.
Finally, Sarri gave his thoughts on winger Pedro and defender Mario Gila.
He started the season with some difficulties, he never found consistency in matches and training. Now in these days he has found it and we are waiting for him because he is very important for us.
Gila is young, in my opinion he’s on an extraordinary path, he has great personality and physical qualities, he’s also good technically because he plays courageously for the midfielders. He has a way to go.
The defensive line is doing much better than last year, but this is a partial evaluation because, even in the last game, I saw enough mistakes.
