Reja laments ´unacceptable´ lapses

Lazio coach Edy Reja was angry with his players after they conceded twice in the opening 12 minutes in their 3-1 loss to Parma on Saturday.

McDonald Mariga and Sergio Floccari struck at Stadio Ennio Tardini, setting Parma on their way to an upset win.

If either Napoli or Udinese win on Sunday, Lazio will slip from the Champions League spot.

Reja, whose team have lost three of their past four league outings, was unhappy with conceding twice so early in the encounter.

“You cannot concede two goals in the first 12 minutes. We’ll go nowhere if we continue to have this lack of concentration,” Reja said.

“A goal can happen, but two is unacceptable. After the 2-1 we tried to get back into it, but the third finished off the game and we were no longer able to react.

“The change of system has nothing to do with the defensive errors. I tried using two strikers to cause problems for the Parma defence, but our distractions on set plays proved decisive.”

With Napoli and Udinese also stumbling in recent outings, Lazio have missed a chance to make third spot their own.

Reja rued his team’s errors, and said they needed to lift if they were to finish in the top three.

“We had several chances to extend our lead in the race for a Champions League spot, but were unable to do so and that means we’ve got a problem,” Reja said.

“We make too many mistakes. We prepared the game with Tommaso Rocchi who was meant to go round Libor Kozak and attack the space, but it never happened.

“We’ve got to play with another level of intensity in the final weeks of the season.”