Giovanni Martusciello reflected on Lazio’s win over Cagliari, discussing the team’s growing mentality and issues in front of goal.
The Biancocelesti cruised to a comfortable 1-0 win over the Sardinian outfit on Saturday evening, but they should’ve scored more considering their general dominance and the fact that their opponents had just 10 men on the pitch.
Despite this, Lazio still secured all three points in a possibly troubling match, allowing them to build a little more confidence following their Champions League success against Celtic earlier in the week.
Speaking in a press conference (via TMW), Martusciello first discussed Lazio’s win over Cagliari. The assistant coach carried out the press conference due to Maurizio Sarri’s illness.
The match put us in an extremely favorable position, with the advantage and numerical superiority. You try to make fewer mistakes and become predictable. The match thus took a turn, and we knew, given their characteristics, that in the end they would play these long balls.
Mentality is built with victories. Lazio were coming off a defeat against the bottom of the table and an extraordinary passage to the Champions League, which takes away a lot of energy. We have to go back to hear the Champions League music next year too.
He was asked if he enjoyed watching this Lazio side.
There are difficulties to face. I’m different if at a distance I manage to obtain my desire, that is to win through the beautiful game. Today we didn’t succeed. We did it for the first 20 minutes, then after the sending off we slowed down. The fun is done through a game proposal.
There are no players who don’t have fun, they are young, they earn money and they play football. Then there is also the skill of the opponents, due to our structure we have difficulty with high balls, as happened at the end today.
He provided an update on the injured players in the squad.
Casale, Zaccagni and Romagnoli will not recover for Tuesday. We’ll see if they can make it for Verona, maybe one of the two centre-backs. Luis Alberto will be evaluated, we still have no information.
The Lazio assistant coach was asked about the boos from fans inside the Stadio Olimpico.
They boo for the victory because they saw the 1-0 against a team with 10 men. I’ve seen teams that do worse than us and win. They are also here near us, and you know what I mean. Here we always look for the negative side.
We always try to win every match. What you’re saying seems offensive to me. As a coach I also won and scored against Lazio, and it wasn’t a great show.
He was asked about the team’s goals in the Coppa Italia this season.
I think there is an awareness that it will be a final, we’ll talk about it tomorrow morning. We hope to rediscover the enthusiasm that has distinguished us over the years.
Finally, Martusciello discussed Lazio’s inability to close out matches in the second half.
I believe that every time we started again, we tried to look for the goal. There wasn’t this attempt at management and if there was, it came from the fear of not forcing the play. There was concern not to make mistakes. Sometimes we approach it differently and sometimes not.
