Maurizio Sarri feels the Lazio defeat to Fiorentina was ‘frankly harsh when we kept the initiative throughout,’ but raised doubts on his future. ‘We’ll see what the club has in mind.’
The Aquile were unbeaten in four going into the Stadio Artemio Franchi, albeit dealing with an injury crisis that saw Mattia Zaccagni, Toma Basic and Patric thrown straight back into the starting XI.
Robin Gosens got his head to the Jack Harrison cross to give Fiorentina victory, but David De Gea denied Zaccagni and Petar Ratkov with big saves.
Sarri frustrated with Lazio loss
“The goal was fortuitous, as until that moment and frankly for a while afterwards too, we were largely in control,” Sarri told DAZN Italia.
“What we must take responsibility for is allowing them a few too many counter-attacks, but we kept the initiative throughout and the defeat feels frankly harsh considering the performances of the two teams.
“A centre-forward figure inside the penalty area is something we’ve been lacking all season, we don’t get those runs into the box to meet the crosses. Ratkov had a chance late on with a header, but we do lack those characteristics.”
Meanwhile, their primary focus is on the Coppa Italia semi-final, having drawn the first leg 2-2 with Atalanta.
“I hope to get players back, but it depends what condition they are in, because just being clinically healed is not enough. We want to finish the season with good performances, and for long periods we did that tonight too.”
Lazio are now in ninth place and four points adrift of Bologna, but also only one clear of Udinese in 10th.
A top eight finish means missing the first round of the Coppa Italia in August next season, but Sarri reacted with irritation when the panel started a question about ‘yet another defeat’ away from home.
“Hold it there, only six teams have lost more than we have this season. If it was the first defeat, we’d be top of the table,” replied the coach.
How worried is Sarri about his own future and that of Lazio?
“I am not worried about my future, for Lazio we’ll see what the plans are. I honestly don’t know what the plans are for the future, I can only say this season has been devastating for me. Just preparing tonight’s game we were missing 10 players, so we had to use some who were nowhere near fully fit.
“There have been many problems this season. We’ll see what the club has in mind for the future, and then we’ll see what I think as a consequence of that.”
Sarri famously grew up in the shadow of the Stadio Franchi and has been mentioned as a potential new Fiorentina coach for next season.
With this in mind, he received a warm welcome from the Viola supporters before kick-off.
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