Baroni: ‘Lazio need to step up the tempo’ and concern for Dele-Bashiru | OneFootball

Marco Baroni tries to look on the bright side of Lazio’s 0-0 draw with relegation battlers Venezia and has an injury update on Fisayo Dele-Bashiru. ‘We’ve got to step up the tempo.’

The injury crisis is beginning to take its toll on the Aquile, who were missing Taty Castellanos, Matias Vecino and Elseid Hysaj for the trip to the Laguna.

It got even worse when midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru sprained his ankle and was carried off by two members of medical staff, meaning Rade Belahyane was thrown in for his debut following the transfer from Hellas Verona.

The lack of their star striker was evident in this 0-0 draw against the club in penultimate place and makes it difficult to recapture fourth spot from Juventus.

Baroni worried about Lazio injuries

VENICE, ITALY – FEBRUARY 22: Fisayo Dele-Bashiru of SS Lazio injured during the Serie match between Venezia and Lazio at Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo on February 22, 2025 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Marco Rosi – SS Lazio/Getty Images)

“It is never easy, but this game will help us learn that we’ve got to step up the tempo and intensity, which is something we did not do today,” Baroni told DAZN.

“On the plus side, we kept a clean sheet and the squad remained compact, but we weren’t sharp enough.”

Dele-Bashiru sprained his ankle in a coming together with Alessio Zerbin, tried to run it off and shoot for goal, only making it worse.

“We have to verify his condition. He felt pain when he took that shot. Playing every two or three days, it’s going to be difficult to get him recovered for the next match,” added Baroni.

“Venezia sat very deep and it was not easy to open up those spaces. We often tried to move the ball around with short passes, but they slowed us down and we never quite managed to get a rhythm going. Venezia deserve a lot of credit for frustrating us.”

There is little time to get the squad on track, because Lazio have the Coppa Italia quarter-final on Tuesday, Milan in Serie A on Sunday and then Viktoria Plzen for the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 on March 6.