Lazio Still Difficulty Adapting To Sarrismo's Football Philosophy

JAKARTA - Lazio are still adapting to coach Maurizio Sarri's tactics, according to assistant coach Giovanni Martusciello.

The adaptation process also made Lazio struggle to keep up with Torino 1-1 in the Italian League continued at the Olimpico Grande, Thursday local time.

Despite having the upper hand, Lazio were relatively blunt in attack and their defense was often troubled by an aggressive Torino who broke the deadlock through Marko Pjaca's goal in the 76th minute.

Lazio even needed a penalty kick to secure a point, which Ciro Immobile converted in the first minute of injury time.

"We lacked consistency in training sessions, because there wasn't much time to do it so we couldn't fully assimilate some of the tactical principles of the coach," Martusciello told Sky Sport Italia after the match.

According to Martusciello, Sarri's tactics have greatly changed the character that has been attached to the Biancoceleste during Simone Inzaghi's management since 2016.

95' | #TorinoLazio 1-1Triplice fischio a Torino: @ciroimmobile risponde a Pjaca#SerieATIM#CMonEagles pic.twitter.com/nMRt5DfFzQ

— SSLazio (@OfficialSSLazio) September 23, 2021

Therefore it takes time for the players to adapt, but Martusciello believes the results will be seen soon.

"The results will soon be seen, we did present a different style of football than what Lazio have played in the last four or five years," he said.

"The players are enjoying it, but everything needs a process to translate what we do in training into the game," added Martusciello.

Lazio certainly doesn't have time to adapt Sarri's game, because this weekend they are faced with an important derby match against AS Roma on Sunday.

"I'm not worried, we can certainly show our style of play on Sunday," concluded Martusciello.

Lazio are currently in seventh place in the standings with a collection of eight points, two wins and two draws in five matches.

Maurizio Sarri is known to have a Sarrismo football philosophy. Sarrismo works on two basic principles; possession and movement of the ball. This philosophy rests on an attack that starts from the defense zone, with short, sharp passes.

His Napoli side in the 2017-18 season lined up in an orthodox 4-3-3 formation, switching to 4-5-1 in defense and 2-1-4-3 in attack. Sarri trusts every member of his squad as a footballer. With the ball, Napoli always try to apply the triangular passing method with master passing Jorginho at the heart of everything.

Without the ball, Napoli pressed high with a defensive line that was also high causing opponents to pass back or make mistakes. This helps them attack at whip speed.

Most of Napoli's attacks came from the left flank, initiated by left-back Faouzi Ghoulam, who then teamed up with Marek Hamšík and Lorenzo Insigne to produce some scintillating footballing action that also allowed Jose Callejon to showcase his opening skills.

Having left mainstay Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus and Arkadiusz Milik through injury, Sarri's magnum opus arrived as he turned little Belgian winger Dries Mertens into a prolific centre-forward.

Mertens almost always scored one goal in a game. This of course strengthens the Partenopei attack and confirms the effectiveness of Sarri's philosophy.

Cigarette addicts' Napoli finished second in the 2017-18 season, just four points behind eventual champions Juventus. Scored almost two goals per game and was considered to be playing the most exciting football in all of Europe.

Sarri then replaced Antonio Conte as Chelsea manager, signing a three-year contract under Roman Abramovich. He brought along Jorginho who slid into the heart of the midfield as a long-term replacement for the aging Cesc Fabregas.

At Chelsea, the coach who admits to smoking 60 cigarettes a day is changing the tactics applied by his predecessor, Conte. The Blues were transformed into a team that played based on possession more offensively than ever before. Not to mention his fantastic passing.

Chelsea managed to adapt to the philosophy of a former banker who didn't manage a top club until the age of 55. He has also successfully retained star players such as Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois.

Sarri became the first Chelsea head coach to take the team unbeaten in 12 Premier League games, until 24 November when they fell to Tottenham 1-3.

Despite failing in the domestic league, on 29 May, Sarri won his first major trophy as a manager after Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1 in the 2019 Europa League Final in Baku.

Sarrismo actually means a wave of attacks without stopping, so that the opposing players are like being rolled in by the waves. Sarrismo also demanded the players in his squad to make 11 passes in the space of 7 seconds to break the opponent's concentration.

Evidently, through this philosophy, Chelsea managed to win the title with the title unbeaten throughout the entire Europa League season.

But unfortunately, at Lazio, that philosophy has not fully worked. Be patient, Laziele...