Maurizio Sarri explains his decisions after Ciro Immobile came on as a substitute to decide the Champions League win over Celtic. ‘I had weapons on the bench.’
Following the 2-1 defeat to Salernitana on Saturday, Sarri said he wanted to see a very different mentality from his men.
“I expected this response, but it is odd that this season we keep doing well in Europe and not in Serie A,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.
“Now I want to see the same attitude in the league at the weekend. If it was an issue of motivation, that would be a problem. The Champions League atmosphere gives us energy, but we must find it in Serie A too.
“It might be more prestigious for a player to do well on a night like this, but that is a weakness.”
On the one hand, some of his initial choices in this must-win match could raise eyebrows, above all leaving Immobile and Pedro on the bench in favour of Taty Castellanos and Gustav Isaksen.
However, the substitutions proved decisive once it became clear that Celtic had to go for broke and leave spaces round the back, as Immobile netted twice in a three-minute spell on Isaksen assists.
“Some situations were forced upon us. We have to take into consideration that we are playing every three days, so this morning we decided to pick Castellanos and bring these two weapons onto the bench for later.
“I prefer to have Immobile play 30 minutes like tonight rather than see him exhausted within a couple of matches.”
Isaksen proved to be a revelation, as he provided both assists for Immobile and stayed on when Felipe Anderson was substituted.
“He is young and came to us from the Danish league, so a lot changed and he needed time to adapt. You could see he had potential and can do even better than he did tonight.”
This is not just a fluke, because in the five Champions League group games this season, the Biancocelesti have scored four goals and earned five points by scoring from the 80th minute onwards.