Maurizio Sarri insists Lazio ‘are on the right track’ despite their 2-0 defeat to Milan, explains his midfield choices and admits the Champions League is ‘a luxury’ for his team.
The Aquile continue to struggle this season, as they have only two wins against Napoli and Torino, falling 2-0 at San Siro this evening.
Rafael Leao burst down the left to put both assists on a silver platter for Christian Pulisic and Noah Okafor, while Pedro saw a late curler disallowed because Ciro Immobile was offside in the build-up.
“We had an impressive first half, but created many moves on the attack and didn’t even turn them into scoring opportunities,” the coach told DAZN.
“We struggled the first 15 minutes of the second half to break out from our sector, then had a good period between the two goals.
“Thinking of coming here without even suffering for 15 minutes is improbable. We lost the game with a couple of strong runs from players with more pace than ours. I still think we are on the right track.”
Taty Castellanos received his first start because Ciro Immobile was struggling with a flexor issue.
“Like the team, he had a good first half, but considering it was his first start, he did well. Immobile felt something in the flexor after the Torino game and after meeting with the doctor, he did not feel ready to play. We decided together that in case of extreme need, he would try.
“Immobile had seven or eight minutes to warm up, told me he felt ok and so he played a little.”
The only areas where Sarri seems content to rotate the squad systematically is the midfield, where Nicoló Rovella seems to have moved to the top of the list.
“The midfield was pretty aggressive in the first half, won back the ball several times and went on the counter. When we had to suffer, we sat too deep and didn’t give ourselves enough options to breathe and take the pressure off.
“Milan’s pressure only really lasted 10 minutes, which was predictable coming to play at San Siro. We were not desperate or anything, we weren’t allowing them that much.
“Rovella was coming off an injury, he barely played more than 10 minutes, so it seems right to give him some consistency in the starting XI. He actually impressed me with his defensive capabilities so far this season.”
Sarri has a remarkably poor record at San Siro against Stefano Pioli’s Milan, losing all four visits by conceding 10 goals and scoring none.
Lazio have again shown they struggle playing three games a week and the Champions League is a strain on their limited resources.
“The Champions League is a luxury for us, our lives are in Serie A,” said the coach.
“From Monday we will start to think about Celtic and give our all because it is an important spotlight.”