Sarri: ‘Lazio Need to Keep Spirit of Win Over Milan’

Maurizio Sarri was proud of his Lazio squad following their emphatic 4-0 win over Milan, calling on them to maintain this spirit.

The Biancocelesti blew the defending champions out of the water at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday, flying to a thrilling victory thanks to the work of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Mattia Zaccagni, Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson. The win sees Lazio take an important step forward in the race for a top four finish this season.

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Speaking in a press conference (via La Lazio Siamo Noi), Sarri first discussed Lazio’s performance in their win over Milan.

It is a consequence of the willingness that all players have to make themselves available. When the collective works the individuals also improve. I also make this appeal to you, if we want consistency there must be balance.

In five days, there’ll be a difficult match and tonight’s performance does not guarantee that we will start 1-0 in the next one. We have to keep the spirit of this evening also in the next matches, which is what we need to make the leap in quality.

This year we have scored more points in direct clashes and then dropped some stupid ones like against Genoa or Empoli. Compared to last year we have improved, but if we want to become a strong team, we have to polish this defect even more.

He thanked the supporters for their passionate support.

I reviewed all the exits from out the back over the last few games. Since I didn’t do it in Reggio-Emilia, I’d like to thank our fans, they made us feel at home in Sassuolo and pushed us to victory. I can only thank this fanbase.

The 63-year-old Italian coach commented on the importance of maintaining consistency and performing well against provincial sides.

There are teams that have a great variety of offensive players that change the game in progress. There are teams that when they make changes up front have great players, some teams have something more than us from this point of view.

We try to do our best, you can’t give away points like we did in certain situations and that’s something we have to polish up. In the head we must have the objective of giving our best.

He explained why the team don’t have a mental coach.

For me 80% of mental coaches are bogus. No team can play 38 games with the adrenaline of today, when we play games like this, we can beat anyone.

The Lazio coach spoke about his team’s increased unity in recent weeks.

I like to have the feeling that the team is in control of the game, that they feel strong in dribbling.

I’ve seen a lot from the players, in the last 15 days they have put themselves at the disposal of the team in an impressive way.

I’ve seen that very rarely since I’ve been in this job. A situation that I hope will continue because if the group is united it also pays off individually.

Finally, Sarri underlined his desire to have a strong Italian core in his squads.

Napoli, Chelsea, in these teams there were few Italians, it is important to have a strong core of Italians to create a squad.

Abroad they have a different vision of football to ours, I have seen English stadiums with 60,000 fans and before the end there was no one left. Having a core of Italians to create a squad is important.

Tags AC Milan Biancocelesti Italy Lazio Lazio vs Milan Maurizio Sarri Milan Milan vs Lazio Rome Sarri Serie A