Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri says he wants answers on the pitch for his teams recent string of poor performances. The Biancocelesti dropped to 11th place in Serie A at the weekend after a 2-1 loss to Salernitana, something Sarri pointed to when speaking ahead of their Champions League match with Celtic tomorrow evening:
What signals did you get from the team after the defeat in Salerno?
“I don’t want to have signals now, I want to have them tomorrow. We lost a game through superficiality and lack of determination, in an ugly way. The team must respond, not with words but on the field.”
Was there any intervention by club?
“Fabiani made the intervention, in a nice tough way. I’m happy, I think it was needed. Nice intervention, I liked it’.
Of the aspects that did not work, what do you expect to improve? Is something more expected from the old guard?
“By now you have to reset, there are no old and new. There are no qualms in every respect. It is useless to talk about tactics. Tactics are a help when the other components are at the same level as the opponents, if they are lacking there is no tactics that matter.
Lazio too predictable?
“Commonplaces that have no reason to exist. Barcelona dominated for ten years playing always in the same way. It’s bar talk that doesn’t belong to me.”
Did you notice anything different during the training camp compared to last years?
“The training camp was done on a good level, afterwards something changed. During the retreat the level of the team was absolutely good.”
What do you expect from Celtic?
“They are not an easy team to face. We mustn’t delude ourselves about the negative away results, they were conditioned by the numerical inferiority in both matches. It will be a complicated game for us.
What does a coach do before such a delicate match?
“What I had to say to the team I said yesterday, now we have to pull ourselves together without thinking about what happened in Salerno. Hopefully the Champions League atmosphere will give us that extra something.
How can this mentality situation be resolved? The infirmary?
“The mentality depends on two thousand factors. Probably on an environmental level something is not conveying much, it’s difficult to understand why. If players and coaches change but the same level remains, it means the problem is environmental.
Injuries?
“Zaccagni out, Romagnoli out, Casale improving while Rovella is better”.
