Sarri: ‘Lazio downgraded, but I promised to accept any compromise’

Maurizio Sarri seemed downbeat after Lazio’s 0-0 draw with Lecce, admitting the club is being ‘downgraded’ and not moving in the right direction. ‘I promised I’d accept any compromise.’

Both teams were in poor form going into the Stadio Via del Mare, and that anxiety was palpable in a dull 0-0 draw.

The hosts had more chances, above all Ylber Ramadani’s strike that bounced off the underside of the crossbar, and ended their run of four consecutive defeats with at least a point.

It was the 11th clean sheet for Lazio, which might be the only positive news for their coach this evening.

“I said many things to the Lazio fans. I said that this season I’d do anything, and accept any kind of compromise, because I made a promise to them, they are showing so much love, which I cannot ever hope to repay in full,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.

“Lazio is something you cannot understand from the outside. When you arrive here, it is unconditional love.”

The coach was asked outright, are Lazio being downgraded during this season?

“So far, yes. We’ll have to see where we are at the end of the season, but until now yes. The club tells me they want to build a young squad, but it has to be one of quality,” replied Sarri.

“I don’t care about age, if there is quality, you can be 20 or 30, it makes no difference to me.

“The team did what it could today after a difficult week, unfortunately we wasted so many passes in the first half and made it difficult for ourselves. There were fewer mistakes in the second half, and we disappeared in the final third, but that is a recurring problem we’re struggling to solve.”

Lazio have sold Taty Castellanos because he didn’t fit Sarri’s style of football, but this evening he started Boulaye Dia rather than Tijjani Noslin or new signing Petar Ratkov.

“I thought Dia didn’t do badly in the first 10-20 minutes, but then the service wasn’t the right quality, and that’s not his strength. Ratkov seemed to improve slightly from when he first arrived, Taylor also improved from previous games.

“We have some strikers right now who are struggling to convert chances, or maybe it’s our fault for not giving them the correct service. It’s hard to evaluate, honestly.”

This has been a tense week for the Biancocelesti, and Romagnoli was in the starting XI despite reports he has put in a transfer request to join Roberto Mancini’s Al-Sadd.

After the final whistle, he went to the away end and seemed emotional as he shook hands with some of the ultras, handing over his jersey.

Are Lazio at least moving in the right direction?

“I don’t know. I have no idea right now, we’ll have a better idea when things are more stable. At the moment, the overwhelming feeling is no, but we’ll see what happens over the next few days, I might be proved wrong. Let’s wait and see,” concluded Sarri.