Marco Baroni feels Lazio were ‘aggressive’ from the start and pushed Bologna even before the red card, so fully deserved their 3-0 victory. ‘I want to see us play with courage.’
Lazio continue their stunning form, winning their last seven competitive matches between Serie A and the Europa League.
The only outlier is the 1-0 defeat to Juventus on October 19 when down to 10 men, otherwise they’ve won the other 11 official games in a row.
“As I’ve said from the start, the team wants to play an attacking style of football, it does it with courage and that is what we want to see,” Baroni told DAZN.
“Naturally, we are also happy with the results, for the club and the fans. I primarily want my team to have this identity and to always face every game with this attitude.”
The Aquile knew only a victory would keep them in joint second place with Inter, Atalanta and Fiorentina, as all the top teams had already won this weekend.
Baroni relishing attack-minded Lazio
It was far from easy against a Bologna side that had won its last three in Serie A, but the game changed after Tommaso Pobega received his foolish second yellow card on 35 minutes for clattering into the back of Matteo Guendouzi.
It wasn’t until the 68th minute that Lazio finally broke them down with Samuel Gigot’s header on a corner and the Mattia Zaccagni curler, while Fisayo Dele-Bashiru completed the 3-0 rout in stoppages.
Nuno Tavares was out injured today, but Manuel Lazzari and Luca Pellegrini impressed as full-backs.
“I always tell them to be aggressive and it’s true that we were against 10 men, but the fact is we were aggressive from the start against a Bologna side in great form. We pinned them back and steered the game towards the direction we wanted even before the red card,” continued Baroni.
Of today’s three goals, two were scored from players who came off the bench.
“I come from situations where I always needed everyone, I could not leave anyone behind, so the players feel that they can earn their opportunity with me. I try to reinforce that every time and think of 22 first choice players, especially when we have three major competitions to participate in.”
Baroni must now prepare for Thursday’s Europa League tie with Ludogorets, as they are the only team still with a perfect record in the competition.
“The atmosphere is remarkable around us and when I talked about the emotion this team needs to spread to the crowd, that is something we must keep doing,” concluded the coach.
