Live TMW
10.55pm – In a few minutes the Lazio coach Marco Baroni will speak in the conference from the press room of the Olympic Stadium to comment on the Biancoceleste’s 2-1 success against Cagliari. Follow the live text on TUTTOmercatoWEB
11.25pm - Marco Baroni’s press conference has begun
We saw you particularly angry at the end, is winning like this a plus for your team? What didn’t you like?
“I felt that the team needed support because it was a strange match. We immediately took the lead and the team lost something by going too vertical, I made the substitution at halftime not to penalize Noslin but I needed to use more dribble The team then played 25 minutes very well with the three midfielders, we have to think that Cagliari had a shot on target from a deflection, they are a difficult team because they are trained well and the players are attentive everything, I congratulate the boys because if you don’t spend everything you have you won’t win.”
When will Baroni’s Lazio be able to say they are fighting for the Champions League?
“We are fighting with ourselves and this is the best challenge. We are ambitious like the market, I am particularly ambitious but I know that it is more important to look at the path. The numbers make us very happy, but the path will lead us to reach what we want to achieve. This team can grow, we have young people who are already doing well but who can still give much more, but we have to recover quickly because on Thursday we face a big team in Europe what we did last year, but it would be a mistake to talk about this. There was a lot of external pressure in this match, it would be a mistake if the team were to reflect we can only do it through performance.”
Can you explain the tactical change at half-time? What do you think of Pellegrini’s performance?
“The 4-2-3-1 is not easy to maintain with so many close matches and it forces you to play vertically, but today these conditions weren’t there and we needed the three midfielders who gave us a different way of holding the match. We had to get inside the area not with verticalisations but through maneuver, the team created many situations. I have to compliment the boys. Pellegrini is a boy who has many qualities, he needs to have his head and brains and I have that taken from the start. Unfortunately it has to be managed, when players don’t feel involved they get into trouble and if he plays with application he’s a strong player.”
How is Patric?
“Patric started the week with a little discomfort, today we tried but we decided not to risk it. He has already had an instrumental test and the player is fine, I don’t rule out that he can recover for Porto.”
How much does the whole squad need?
“Castro needs trust and expects it from me, I know it. Today he had a small problem, now we’ll see how he is during the week. I can’t wait to be able to use him, there was this exclusion from Europe which he penalized in playing time. The others are guys who have to make their own journey and are growing, for me Tchaouna is a strong player because when he kicks he scores but he is building a role for himself. The same thing as Dele-Bashiru, they need to understand but they will.”
What kind of victory was today?
“Today was a mature performance, we knew about the difficulties of the match. The ready-to-go goal took something away from us, this team must never lose its edge. We will hardly win matches that we don’t deserve, today the team deserved it because in the difficulties created by opponent created. On the right there was a double full-back with a lot of running and physical structure, there were expert players with a lot of physical presence on the pitch. These are complicated games and having conceded very little is important.”