Sven Goran Eriksson, former Lazio coach, spoke to TV Play, also mentioning his possible presence at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday evening during Lazio Sassuolo, the last match of the Serie A championship.
During his interview, the Swedish coach spoke enthusiastically about his experiences and successes achieved with Lazio.
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“What if I will be in Rome on Sunday? I think so, but I haven’t decided 100% yet. I will almost certainly come and I think it will also be a great match from an entertainment point of view. When I was at Lazio I woke up happy every morning, I was happy to go to work. That team wasn’t strong, but very strong. We all had champions playing for their respective national teams. We won in a special way and for a few years we were among the best in Europe. We could have won one more scudetto, like the one we lost against Milan the year before. We should have won it, but we still achieved many other successes.”
Lazio’s Successes and the Management of the Group
The Swedish coach continues by stating that “I was good at creating a strong and united group, where everyone wanted to win together. Managing great players is not easy, they are all very different from each other, and the important thing is to speak their “language”, to be accepted and understood. This is because every boy has a different temperament. In that Lazio team every single player wanted to win. We worked well, it was a strong group, I had no problems managing the squad. If they had wanted, they could have made a big mess. But no one did it because they wanted the same thing: to win. And so they accepted being on the bench or being replaced, knowing that they couldn’t all play at the same time. Things were going well for this reason too.”
Thoughts On England and Its Illness
The former manager then reflected on his time as England manager and his recent illness diagnosis: “When I was England manager I sometimes thought about it: ‘Was I right or wrong in leaving Lazio? But England was a highly prestigious national team. The job as a coach is totally different; in the national team you have little time, in the club you are with the players every day. I saw Lazio yesterday, and when I watch the matches I still think like a coach, I like to observe the game systems. As for my illness, I had started a new job in Sweden as a director, after a week the diagnosis was made. I had to stop working to cure myself. Speculations began to circulate about me, about why I stopped. So I did an interview on the radio and talked about my illness, a tumor that cannot be cured. It was better that way, I stopped the possible questions. Patience. I want to live a long time longer, I’ll try, let’s see. I’m pretty well…”
