Maurizio Sarri was satisfied with the work of his Lazio squad but was disappointed not to take victory over rivals Roma.
The Biancocelesti rose to the occasion in the Derby della Capitale but failed to find the breakthrough against the Giallorossi, forcing the two teams to share a point apiece after a tense 93-minute affair at the Stadio Olimpico.
Lazio now have the international break to take stock of their start to the season and try to start turning things around in Serie A in the coming months, needing to break into the top four before they start to fall behind.
Speaking in a press conference (via La Lazio Siamo Noi), Sarri first reflected on Lazio’s draw with Roma.
I’m satisfied from the character point of view that we had a strong performance as we are often doing. I wasn’t afraid to lose, the clean, clear balls were ours. It’s clear that a derby if you can’t win it, you can’t lose. You can’t risk it.
The more I play it, the worse I feel because I feel it more and more. We have regained the ability to stay tight, defensive solidity. A game like this with the offensive dangerousness of last year would have been won.
He spoke about the importance of the Biancocelesti fans and his decision to thank them after the derby.
Our fans are wonderful, I usually never go to greet them for better or worse. Tonight, I felt it. The takings represent 6% of the club’s income. When you raise the level it’s hard for them too, unfortunately I’m a lover of old-fashioned football.
Now it goes in this direction, they are more interested in football than in the rest of human activity. Then we have another problem, tonight two teams played that are also doing well at European level, on an amateur pitch.
The pitch is the same for everyone, it’s a cliché. Since we play 700 balls a game, it makes a difference for a team like us to have such a pitch. Beautiful for concerts, ugly to watch football, horrible to play on.
The Lazio coach touched on some of his regrets from the match.
The regret of a match is also this, we were preparing some changes and we had to make others. Within minutes Vecino, Marusic asked for a change. We put in patches without the chance to reinvigorate.
Ciro spent a lot of time, in the 75th minute we could’ve made changes, but it was also the sixth game in 21 days and there was also tiredness to go and press in the opponent’s area. It was better to wait for them.
Sarri discussed the fight to climb up the Serie A table.
If Lazio play with this spirit, we’ll go up. If we think we can win easily we can’t. Zaccagni is out with an injury, and we have hopes of recovering him at the end of the break.
Vecino has a neurological back or flexor period, but it’s early days. Marusic is probably not resting very well where he got the injury and has calf problems. The rest is all big fatigue stuff.
He was asked if he was satisfied with the team’s gap from the top four spots.
Making up points to teams in the top four is always complicated, it will be a long story to make up points there. If we had two good results in those games, we would be in a perfect position.
What the team has to worry about is playing with this intensity even against lesser teams. The level of the lower middle teams is high. We have to continue with this mentality.
Finally, Sarri was asked about his usage of Daichi Kamada.
We talk about him all the time, I like him and I find it difficult to play him with Luis Alberto for many reasons, but he is a player who can give a lot when he fits in fully.
We are not talking about a player who makes a few small appearances, but we have the hope that he will become important for us.
The bad thing is that Luis Alberto is disqualified and Kamada will be in the national team and will return on Saturday.
