Baroni critical of ‘naive’ Romagnoli and Lazio after defeat | OneFootball

Marco Baroni told off Lazio defender Alessio Romagnoli for his ‘naïve’ mistake during the 2-1 defeat to Udinese and wants his side to be more ruthless in attack too.

The Aquile had also conceded early in their opening fixture against Venezia, but managed to turn that around for a 3-1 victory.

This time they capitulated at the Bluenergy Stadium, as Lorenzo Lucca’s header and a Florian Thauvin solo run made the difference, even for 10 men.

“We conceded two bad goals and this happened with Venezia too,” Baroni told Sky Sport Italia.

“They are a very physical team and it is not easy, but we must improve and be more concrete with both defending and attacking phases.

“We got into their box 48 times compared to just 13 for Udinese, so it’s not easy to get the game back on track when they are sitting so deep. We know that we have to improve and move the ball around quicker.”

Baroni warns Lazio and Romagnoli

There was confusion over the opening goal, as the offside flag was up when Lucca rose to nod in the cross, but the referee did not blow his whistle and so VAR was able to confirm the linesman had got it wrong.

Baroni was critical of Romagnoli, who seemed to stop playing and instead raised his hand to protest.

“We must not stop, you can see Romagnoli is in the right position and lifts his arm, but you have to play to the whistle. This is the kind of naïve mistake we simply cannot afford.

“In games against a team that sits deep, you cannot allow them these advantages.”

Gustav Isaksen got the late goal for Lazio, but it was mere consolation by that stage, even though Udinese were down to 10 men for the Hassane Kamara second yellow card.

“We spread the ball down the wings a lot today, but need to provide better crosses. Boulaye Dia has more capability at moving between the lines, Dele-Bashiru has to improve, but the team is well aware of that,” added the coach.

“We need to move the ball around faster, that is how we can become less predictable. We had three or four chances to change it up to the other flank and didn’t do it.”