Maurizio Sarri was relatively happy with his Lazio squad despite their tough 3-0 loss to Juventus, suggesting the scoreline wasn’t accurate to the performance.
The Biancocelesti looked toothless at the Allianz Stadium without Ciro Immobile and Mattia Zaccagni on Sunday night, struggling to take advantage of their control in possession. A Moise Kean brace and an Arkadiusz Milik finisher secured all three points for Massimiliano Allegri and his Juventus squad, leaving Lazio frustrated come the full time whistle.
Speaking in a press conference (via La Lazio Siamo Noi), Sarri first reacted to Lazio’s 3-0 loss to Juventus.
The team didn’t go in timid, they had a great first half. We recovered three balls and we didn’t hurt them, they scored goals, this is the difference. At this moment if we go behind against a physical team that is waiting for us so deep we create some problems.
Pedro has been forced to play a lot recently, he arrived perhaps exhausted. We arrived drained of energy at the end of this tour de force. We paid for two bad mistakes, two trivial balls that we lost even under pressure.
I didn’t have the feeling that we could have scored in the first half. The 3-0 is a deceitful result. With the characteristics we have now going forward we can’t go by force but we have to dribble endlessly until we find space, then the second goal arrived and then it became hard.
He gave his thoughts on Ivan Provedel’s mistake in Juventus’ first goal.
I haven’t seen the incident again, seeing how it ended I can tell you that he should have gone back and not stood outside the posts. The defence was definitely a bit stretched.
The 63-year-old Italian coach commented on the performance of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
I spoke to him in these days and he said he didn’t feel influenced by the World Cup. Maybe on an unconscious level it’s something that can take something away from you, it can also be a normal downturn that all players have during the season.
He did not want to discuss transfer market rumours and was clear when giving his thoughts on the state of modern football journalism.
I’m not interested in football gossip. I liked reading the scorecards, now there are the report cards, the latest opprobrium in recent years. Since the newspaper disappeared I no longer enjoy it.
Journalists give ratings to 38 player in 15 minutes, phenomena, in my opinion they don’t see sh*t. I don’t know how you do journalism today, I think real journalism doesn’t exist anymore.
We are in the hands of kids who get €5 a piece. Then if you talk to certain people they tell you that it’s people who want to know about the transfer market. I have no answers to give you.
Sarri spoke about the upcoming World Cup in Qatar and how it affects his squad.
We’re facing a situation that for the majority is a new situation. No one has great solutions, I think that having played so many matches the break is good for everyone. We’re full of injuries and aches and pains, the teams are tired.
Who will be able to come out of the break better is hard to say, I think we all made up for it by seeing what they do in the Bundesliga in the winter break. We are all going to experiment.
Finally, Sarri looked ahead to the upcoming January transfer window and what Lazio may do.
I absolutely haven’t spoken with the club or the players about the market. Lazio do very little or nothing in the winter market, the history of this club says so. I don’t think there will be massive interventions.
I can ask even for ten players, the market is always a compromise between the technical needs and the availability and mentality of the club.
I have clear ideas, if the club decides to make them in January or June it’s not something that concerns me. I have a couple of ideas.
Sounding like Allegri. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic really need to consider his options. This could be his last opportunity to move up to a club that suits his status as one of the best midfielders in Seria A. He won’t achieve anything noteworthy at Lazio.