Injuries Impact Udinese's Match Against Lazio
Kosta Runjaic left Stadio Friuli convinced the match had turned long before Lazio’s winner – and long before the final whistle.
For the Udinese coach, the damage was done in the first half, when injuries to Jakub Piotrowski and Oumar Solet ripped up his game plan and, crucially, burned through two substitution windows before the break.
Injuries shift the balance
Udinese had actually put themselves in a position to win it. Early in the second half, Jesper Karlstrom struck to give the hosts the lead, a reward for a disciplined display that had kept Lazio’s new-look attack largely at arm’s length.
But the effort came at a cost. With Piotrowski and Solet both forced off before half-time, Runjaic’s bench options shrank. Every change from that point on carried a tactical tax.
“We lost Piotrowski and Solet and we paid a heavy price for those two changes, as we lost two substitution slots, so I had doubts,” Runjaic told DAZN, via TuttoMercatoWeb.
The doubts grew as Lazio tightened their grip. Gennaro Gattuso’s side, stacked with summer signings, finally showed their weight. Davide Frattesi dragged them level, then Albert Gudmundsson completed the turnaround, punishing a tiring Udinese side that could no longer reset the game from the bench.
“Lazio played well, they are a strong team and they have bought strong players. They started as favourites,” Runjaic said. “We could have taken a point, but they certainly deserved to score at least one goal.”
On the touchline, the pattern was clear: Udinese dropping deeper, Lazio’s midfield stepping higher, the spaces shrinking for the home side every time they tried to play out.
No risks with Davis, no like-for-like backup
The key attacking decision came with Keinan Davis. Chasing an equaliser, many coaches would have left their main striker on and gambled. Runjaic chose not to.
“Both teams were tired, but we have to respect their qualities and we weren’t able to have the possession we wanted. I didn’t want to risk Davis and the changes in the first half affected us,” he explained.
Without Piotrowski and Solet, Udinese had already lost structure. Losing Davis to injury as well would have been a deeper blow than a single defeat in September. Runjaic knows it – because he also knows he has no natural replacement.
He admitted as much, underlining that Udinese do not yet have a true alternative profile up front. The one potential solution, James Abankwah, is still in the adaptation phase and not ready to shoulder that responsibility in Serie A.
“Abankwah still has to adapt to the pace of Serie A and, in terms of the changes, Lazio were superior,” Runjaic said.
On a night when the margins were thin, those substitutions – the forced ones, the ones he didn’t dare make, and the ones he couldn’t – told the story. For Udinese, the question now is whether this was just an early-season stumble, or the first warning sign of a squad stretched too tight for the grind ahead.
