Maurizio Sarri admits Lazio ‘deserved to go out’ of the Conference League against AZ Alkmaar and this proves the squad ‘doesn’t have the structure to play more than one competition at a time.’
The Biancocelesti essentially repeated the performance of the first leg, taking the lead early on and then crumbling to a 2-1 defeat against AZ Alkmaaar.
Felipe Anderson had given them hope by drawing level on aggregate, but a swerving long-range Jesper Karlsson strike surprised Ivan Provedel, then Vangelis Pavlidis turned it around completely.
In truth, the scoreline was flattering to Lazio, because Provedel and the woodwork prevented it being far worse in the second half.
“We deserved to go out,” confessed Sarri to Sky Sport Italia.
“We stayed in the game until they equalised, then we stopped believing and stopped playing with the focus needed to get back into the tie. My impression was that after the equaliser, my team completely lost all hope, which was incorrect when there were a good 55 minutes left to play.
“After that, we didn’t have the right physical or mental energy, so it becomes tough at that point.”
Sarri made three changes simultaneously on the hour mark, taking off Alessio Romagnoli, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Mattia Zaccagni, so was this also a sign to his team to give up?
“I had already planned the substitutions. We are trying to remain competitive while also giving a few minutes of rest to those who are playing the most.”
After finishing third in their Europa League group, the Aquile are now out of the Conference League in the Round of 16, so can focus entirely on Serie A and achieving a top four finish.
“We don’t have the structure to play more than one competition at a time. I mean that in every sense, numerically, mentally, physically. It is fairly obvious, every time we make five or six changes, we pay the penalty.
“Evidently we are not ready to play at this level and there is a lot of work to be done. We have huge margin for improvement in every sense. This lot put five goals past Real Madrid in the Youth League and we have two in the Primavera 2, so let’s try starting from there.”
He was referring to the fact AZ Alkmaar qualified for the Final Four of the UEFA Youth League this week by eliminating Real Madrid, whereas the Lazio youth team was relegated to their version of Serie B.
Sarri was asked if there was anything he could’ve done differently or if there are regrets at both the Europa League and Conference League performances from Lazio.
“It’s not that the players are not in good shape, it’s that we played every three, four, maximum five days since January. It’s only natural that the players are down to their last drops of energy.
“We couldn’t think that we were extremely competitive, I knew Europe was going to be a problem for us. The choices are then made based on the sensations and the advice from the medical staff, so we couldn’t have made many different choices really.”
Considering Lazio are trying to qualify for the Champions League, this will raise serious questions over their ability to compete at this level if they do finish in the top four.