Maurizio Sarri reflected on the state of football and confirmed that both Luis Alberto and Francesco Acerbi are keen to leave Lazio this summer.
The Biancocelesti have been hard at work this summer overhauling the squad, picking up seven new players as they look to give Sarri a more competitive squad in the fight for a top four finish. One or two more arrivals are likely ahead of the rapidly approaching season, before a new-look Lazio finally take to the stage.
Speaking to Corriere dello Sport, Sarri first discussed why he employs his attacking style of football.
“I like a kind of football in which everyone puts themselves at the service of the team to develop a game in which movements, both defensive and offensive ones, do not include exemptions of any kind.”
The Italian coach underlined his happiness with Lazio, a year after his arrival.
“I feel good here, I like the environment, I have the opportunity to express myself and above all to have fun. I have also changed, now work has to provide me with fun, my feeling toward football has changed.
“I also like the Lazio fans, from the outside I had a completely different, wrong idea. 99% of the Lazio fans are families, young people.
“And to work in a club that does not belong to a fund but to a family gives me taste. At the same time I realize the economic difficulties that can be encountered, fewer resources, of course.”
Sarri had kind words about president Claudio Lotito, an often divisive figure.
“I cannot fully understand the reasons for his unpopularity. Communication? Possibly. But Lotito took a Lazio that was a disaster and for good or bad kept them consistently in the top 5, 6 and in Europe.
“Just think, I find him pleasant, he is a man of spirit and he is someone who listens to you. Lotito will have a thousand other faults, but he is of rare intelligence, he has an obsessive attention to detail and above all on the sporting level he leaves full autonomy.”
The Lazio coach provided an update on Luis Alberto, confirming the player’s desire to join Sevilla.
“For the second year in a row he has expressed his desire to end his career in Spain. More than in Spain in general, just at Sevilla.
“I can’t tell you if I will still have him at the beginning of September. Smart guy, great player and character, if you like, particular.”
He had high praise for star midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
“Sergej is of the highest level players, small flaws and unexplored potential. In some moments of the game he favoured aesthetics, the play that I call ephemeral, at the expense of effectiveness.
“But it is true, in the last part of the season he sought functionality and made a difference.”
Sarri looked to explain why Lazio are not currently at their best.
“We lack the balance of the great team. As much of a mental one as a tactical one. In a one-off game we could and can beat anyone, the trouble that is very often we miss things, we get lost.
“What I want this year is to show a real team and from the first training sessions I have received very positive feelings.”
He spoke highly about his Roma counterpart Jose Mourinho.
“I also like Mourinho. The differences depend mostly on the starting point, the origins. I grew up among the lower leagues, people of another level, where to win I had to affect a lot, and fiercely, to compensate for the limitations of individuals.
“Mourinho started at Barcelona and invested a lot in the quality of the players. Between Stia and Barcelona there’s a big difference! And then I’m Toscano from the mountains, like Luciano Spalletti.”
The Lazio coach confirmed Acerbi’s request for a transfer.
“Nothing tactical, at the end of the season he expressed his desire for a change of scenery and the club will try to accommodate him, that’s why other plans have been made.”
He reflected on how it was to coach Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus.
“I have the regret that I couldn’t coach him when he was younger. I found a player who had established himself through a certain style and had become a world icon.
“The team had to adapt to him, not the other way around. With me he scored 33 goals in the league and four in the cup, and in short, it is never easy to convince a champion with results like that to change his style.”
Finally, Sarri discussed the public perception of him as a man and coach, and how he feels about that.
“I don’t care. I’m very different from how I’m portrayed, for years I did another job and I didn’t absorb the superficiality of football. I dreamed of coaching a great team and I succeeded not once, but several times.
“At 63 I no longer think about career and money is less important, I have evolved. I want pleasure, fun and Lazio can give me that.
“I work to create a real team, 25 players who think alike, in some ways anti-historical. The game of football, by its nature, is collective and instead even you in the press have turned it into the paradise of individuality.”
Thanks to selfish megalomaniacs like Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.
”to work in a club that does not belong to a fund but to a family gives me taste”. Grande Mister!
He hasn’t said Luis Alberto IS leaving, only that he confirmed he wants to finish his career at Sevilla. There is plenty of time for him to return in the future, if Sevilla even want him as much as he wants them!
Cypher he won the league. Its with pirlo where things went really wrong.