Maurizio Sarri insists he is sad to go out of the Coppa Italia quarter-final to Juventus, but ‘not disappointed with the performance’ in their 1-0 defeat.
The Biancocelesti held plenty of possession, but rarely forced saves out of Mattia Perin, as the game ultimately came down to a goalkeeping error on the stroke of half-time.
Luis Maximiano mis-timed the rush off his line, allowing Gleison Bremer to nod in the Filip Kostic cross from the right.
The return of Ciro Immobile to the starting XI after a thigh injury failed to revitalise the attack and he went off at half-time, returning Felipe Anderson to the False 9 role.
“I am disappointed by the result, but not the performance. We were just lacking something in the final third, but we largely allowed Juve very little and were in control,” Sarri told Sport Mediaset.
“We just failed to make our mark when it came to filling the box, taking the initiative and breaking through, as there were very few spaces with Juventus sitting deep to wait for us. We needed that initiative to find a way through.
“It’s disappointing to go out, but we are not disappointed by the performance. Unfortunately, Ciro’s injury put us in a situation where these lads have played a lot throughout January, so perhaps they lost a bit of sharpness when playing so often.
“We play every three or four days and have basically not trained in a month. Ciro’s return will therefore help us to rotate a bit more.”
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was initially left on the bench and came on after the break, but Sarri did not regret that initial decision.
“He played all of the last six games and it was only right to give him some rest today. There are other situations and tournaments that we cannot under-estimate.
“This lad has already played 3,000 minutes on the field this season, he needs to rest whenever he can.”
Lazio continue their unfortunate habit of going from dominant performances, such as the 4-0 victory over Milan, to disappointing draws with Fiorentina and Coppa Italia defeats with a toothless attack.
Sarri was famously very critical of the World Cup in Qatar, which forced a two-month break in the domestic seasons, and it still remains to be seen how that tournament will affect the players who participated.
“I think the reactions to the World Cup event have been very individual, so they differ with each player. Matias Vecino looked not great mentally coming out of the tournament, Sergej a bit better, but these are very subjective situations. It’s difficult to tell.”