The Serie A club’s sporting director insists the squad is now perfectly primed for their 2015-16 campaign – despite losing three consecutive friendlies
Igli Tare has played down the significance of Lazio’s disastrous pre-season results, revealing that Sergej Milinkovic-Savic will almost certainly be their final summer signing as the squad is now “complete and competitive”.
The Biancocelesti will compete in the play-off round of the Champions League later this month, after a sensational third-placed finish in Serie A under new coach Stefano Pioli last season.
However, they have looked horribly out of sorts in pre-season, suffering three successive friendly defeats, to Vicenza, Anderlecht and Mainz.
That has sparked fears among supporters that Lazio are ill-equipped to compete on two fronts this term but sporting director Tare says that with Milinkovic-Savic set to complete a €9 million move to the Stadio Olimpico from Genk on Monday, the capital club are perfectly primed for the 2015-16 campaign.
“The squad is complete now,” the former Albania international told the Gazzetta dello Sport.
“The market doesn’t close until August 31, so it’s always possible to do some deals. But what we had to do, we have done and this should be enough.
“Milinkovic-Savic was the little piece that we were missing. Now the squad is complete and competitive.
“After having taken Wesley Hoedt, Ravel Morrison and Patric, we were still lacking a wide attacker and a midfielder, so Ricardo Kishner and Milinkovic-Savic were the elements that we were looking for in order to tick those boxes.
“Lazio have not sold any of their best players, so when I say that the squad is complete, I’m referring both to the fact that we have two starters for every position and that in each department we have experienced players and young players.
“It’s the right mix to continue the growth that began last year with Pioli.”
Tare also insisted that the team’s poor form since the summer break is no cause for concern.
“It’s certainly nothing to worry about,” the ex-Lazio striker added.
“Defeats are never good but, in a certain sense, we had accounted for them. Pioli wanted to meet strong opponents who were more advanced than us physically, knowing that it could give a bad impression of the squad.
“But this was the best way to speed up our preparation for the games that count: the Supercoppa against Juventus and the Champions League preliminary round. For these challenges, we are ready.”