Reja raving about Lazio attitude

Lazio boss Edy Reja praised his team’s attitude after a comfortable 3-0 win over Novara in the Serie A on Monday.

After a three-match winless run, Lazio went fourth in the table courtesy of a Tommaso Rocchi brace and Giuseppe Biava’s opener.

Reja said he was delighted with how his side approached the fixture against lowly Novara, especially after dropping points in consecutive league outings and drawing at Romanian side Vaslui in the Europa League.

“I couldn’t have hoped for anything better and I couldn’t have asked any more from the team that went onto the pitch with the right attitude. That’s what the president and I asked of the players,” he said.

“At this point in Serie A, after the Vaslui match and the match against Juventus, getting back to winning ways was really important – for the three points and for the players too, because we can be calmer and more confident of our approach.”

While they are four points adrift of league leaders Juventus, Lazio face games against Lecce, Chievo, Siena and Atalanta – who all sit in the bottom half of the table – in four of their next five outings.

Reja said his team needed to find consistency if they were to challenge Juventus and AC Milan for the Serie A title.

“At the beginning of the season we were saying we didn’t have the right balance and consistency in our performances, as we did last season,” he said.

“We didn’t concede much in defence, but we lacked something in attack. Now, we need to improve in attack and maintain the good performances we have in defence and we then can aim for the top positions.”

Midfielder Cristian Ledesma was also pleased with Lazio’s performance against Novara, praising their resolve.

“Everything went well today – our play and the determination that’s been lacking in the last few matches,” he said.

“It was a very good performance, like others we have produced up to now.”

Lazio meet bottom-placed Lecce on Saturday.