Maurizio Sarri insists Lazio were far from at full strength either against a depleted Atalanta and reveals why he feels ‘at home’ with the Biancocelesti.
The Aquile were the favourites to take advantage of the extremely difficult situation that Atalanta were in, as they had seven players out with COVID-19, leaving only two senior outfield players on the bench.
However, aside from a Mattia Zaccagni strike that hit the frame of the goal, they rarely threatened to open the scoring at the Stadio Olimpico. Was this a missed opportunity?
Serie A | Lazio 0-0 Atalanta: Decimated Dea survive the Olimpico
“Atalanta had some real problems, but we too were missing five players and another two returned to training yesterday after 10 days out. We basically were without seven players,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.
“I thought we were set out well tactically, but were lacking a bit of sharpness and especially in the second half the 120 minutes played in the Coppa Italia just three days ago did weigh on us.”
At least it was their third consecutive clean sheet, something that has been hard to come by so far this season.
“We did well attacking up to the final third, passing with quality, then in the area we needed a little more sharpness, that is where we came up short. Atalanta were missing a lot of important players, but had their best defenders and so focused entirely on neutralising us, doing very little upfront.
“We too are missing some important players and therefore had to use the same ones as in the Coppa three days ago.
“Mattia Zaccagni is having good games lately, Felipe Anderson sooner or later will give us a great performance, but we are missing Pedro at the moment.”
Sarri was asked about the possibility of signing a contract extension with Lazio and how he gets along with President Claudio Lotito.
“Clubs are made up of people and this is a club made of people I get along with very well, from the kit staff to the cooks at Formello, the physios, I feel at home.
“Lotito is totally disinterested in tactics, he never asked me anything about that. He is interested in if everything is working at the training centre, but I’ve never heard him talk about any player specifically.
“I have not had the contract, but in the last month the President had a few more important issues to deal with, so there’s no rush.”