Stefano Pioli felt Stefano Mauri hitting the upright was the decisive moment as Lazio fumbled a 2-0 lead with Roma.
“I think my team’s excellent performance remains. Roma have for two years had different objectives to us and yet we played on a par with them,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia after a 2-2 draw.
“We deservedly took a 2-0 lead and obviously there are regrets, but we never thought at half-time that the game was over.
Stefano Pioli felt Stefano Mauri hitting the upright was the decisive moment as Lazio fumbled a 2-0 lead with Roma.
“I think my team’s excellent performance remains. Roma have for two years had different objectives to us and yet we played on a par with them,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia after a 2-2 draw.
“We deservedly took a 2-0 lead and obviously there are regrets, but we never thought at half-time that the game was over.
“We need to resolve some issues, as we seem to be more aggressive and focused when the ball is in the opposition half than in our own. If we can resolve that, then we can really challenge for the top spots.
“Anyone who has played football knows the psychological aspect is decisive. Roma scored after two or three minutes in the second half when we made a mistake, so that boosted their confidence.
“Mauri hit the upright and that was also key, as we would’ve gone 3-1 up and probably closed out the match.
“We have to work on our strengths and weaknesses going forward this season.”
Felipe Anderson continued his amazing form with a goal and an assist – five of each in the last five games – but was surprisingly substituted.
“He was injured, had a very nasty knock that probably deserved a booking and he was unable to change pace. I was forced into that substitution, it was not my choice,” explained Pioli.
“When a Coach has quality players at his disposal, the more he can play at one time, the better. It needs everyone to work hard and the team to run for each other, but we’ve been testing this out for a while.
“We played very well against Sampdoria and today with the 4-3-3 system. We just need to improve our concentration, as we were fairly well set out when conceding the goals.
“Roma changed their system in the second half with Pjanic marking Lucas Biglia, so gave him less time to pick passes. Lucas was also coming off an injury, so he ran out of steam towards the end, but he has such great vision and is tactically very important for us.”
Pioli was asked whether Lazio will work on the transfer market to bring in reinforcements.
“We have many players in the squad, probably too many, so the club if anything should reduce the numbers and I hope we’ll get some of our injured figures back. Once complete, this squad is up to the task.
“The club is only looking to give me a centre-back, because we’ve lost Gentiletti for a long time and Ciani is still out too.”