Lazio may be four points clear at the top of Serie A but coach Edy Reja is still worried about avoiding relegation.
Brazilian centre-back Andre Dias was the unlikely hero in Sunday’s impressive 1-0 win at Palermo, netting a volley into the top corner on 27 minutes. But the cash-strapped club, who held on to their lead despite being reduced to 10 men late on, are still refuting any suggestions they are in a position to maintain this flying start all the way until May.
“We’ve got 22 points, we’re getting great results, we’ve shown character and fight,” said Reja.
“We showed we can struggle with a numerical inferiority but we still need another 18 points for this famous 40 points needed to survive and once we’ve got that, we’ll see.
“We need to get to the half-way point of the season and then start worrying about another reality. Even so, we’ve got determination, conviction, everyone helps each other. The only thing that disappointed me was the state of the pitch, otherwise we could have played better.
“You can’t do better than winning and you can’t always play well.
“(Cristian) Brocchi and (Cristian) Ledesma, for example, worked very hard to limit (Javier) Pastore, they doubled up on him, we tried to predict what he would do.
“We’ve got important strengths added to which we have great character, great sacrifice, we need to maintain this attitude right to the end of the season.”
While no-one expects Lazio to still be sitting pretty at the top of the table in May, their success has been a breath of fresh air.
Lazio lost Macedonia forward Goran Pandev to Inter in January and sold Serbia full-back Alexander Kolarov to Manchester City in the summer.
Last season they also suffered from internal strife as players such as Pandev and Ledesma tried to negotiate their way out of the club. Pandev did not play for the first half of the season until he was sold to Inter.
Lazio also have restrictions on signing players as banks control their spending. But their success has come from being difficult to beat rather than overwhelming their opponents with slick football, as Palermo coach Delio Rossi, an ex-Lazio boss, pointed out.
“We had the better of the game but they did well to close down the spaces,” he said.
“We played very well, we matched them and we didn’t give anything away except a stunning goal from a free-kick.
“We had the best chances of the game, they defended well but we deserved more. After a certain point they looked comfortable but we controlled things at the beginning. We dominated against a great side.”