After a few difficult days, Maurizio Sarri sat down in front of the press ahead of the Fiorentina game: “We hope Lazio are ready to re-start. I have seen the right kind of attitude in practice. The Viola are a strong side and play completely different from the past. They could have an important future.”
“The retreat was a moment of reflection. We dug deep with the players on the up-and-downs of the last year and a half. The missteps always happened against second-tier sides. We need to course-correct because some approaches have been wrong. They also happened on the third game in a week. The physical data are not different from the first one, but the mental energies change.”
Sarri weighed in on Luis Alberto: “He started 8 out of 12 matches and played 40 minutes in the other 4. There are moments where the needs of a single player are not the same as those of the whole team. We hope to solve our issues so we can afford to have him on the pitch.”
“I have been coaching for 30 years, and this is one of the most willing teams I had. We have a strong midfield but, here in Rome, there is a tendency of sanctifying good players too soon. They were accustomed to playing with three defenders and two wing-backs. Now the system is different, and they have more ground to cover. We need to shorten the pitch; otherwise, we run too much for nothing.”
Sarri concluded with some remarks on Manuel Lazzari, who is not playing as much as in the past: “Adam Marusic is more used to the defensive tasks as he featured as the third center-back in the past. Lazzari necessitates more work because he was a pure wing-back.”