Gattuso worried by Lazio defence despite thrashing of Sassuolo

Gennaro Gattuso was left concerned by his Lazio defence despite thumping Sassuolo 6-2 on Tuesday, adding the mentality of his players told him a lot.

Lazio moved three points clear at the top of Serie A ahead of Inter's clash with Venezia on Wednesday with an entertaining triumph at MAPEI Stadium.

The visitors found themselves 3-1 up inside the opening 16 minutes, with Kenneth Taylor, Gustav Isaksen and Romano Floriani Mussolini all on target for Lazio.

Kristian Thorstvedt was then sent off for Sassuolo, but Sebastiano Esposito was able to reduce the deficit in the 43rd minute, only for Mattia Zaccagni to restore Lazio's two-goal cushion in first-half stoppage time.

Missed penalties from Zaccagni and Davide Frattesi came either side of Tijjani Noslin's 55th-minute strike, with the Dutchman sealing the win after the hour for Gattuso's side.

Before their win over Sassuolo, the last time Lazio had scored with five different players in a Serie A match was in March 2018 against Benevento, though the concern for Gattuso was at the opposite end of the pitch.

Lazio dominated the expected goals (xG) battle, registering a total of 3.57 from their 16 shots to Sassuolo's tally of 0.76 from their nine attempts, but Gattuso said his side's superiority was helped largely by Thorstvedt's red card in the first half.

"The thing I will take from this is the mentality," Gattuso said, as quoted by Football Italia. "When we are not being aggressive, we have to learn how to block defensively.

"Sassuolo are a very dangerous side, and we weren't very good on that front. It helped that they were down to 10 men.

"But, when we work and link well, we make it difficult for our opponents. We're not looking at the standings, otherwise we'll get vertigo. We're taking things game by game."

Lazio's result saw them avoid defeat in their first nine games of a Serie A campaign for the fifth time in their history.

It was the first time they had managed to do so since 1999-00, the season they last lifted the Scudetto.

Lazio's win was also their fifth consecutive league triumph, a feat they last achieved under Marco Baroni between October and November two years ago.

But Gattuso was not getting ahead of himself when asked about Lazio's title credentials this season, adding: "I'm superstitious, but we also have to look at reality.

"If we think about trying to manage the game or see it out, we start finding it difficult.

"We have to go and keep creating the situations that we are creating. We haven't had any kicks in the teeth yet, so we'll see when it happens.

"There's only one way to go about it and that is by working hard."