Injuries Derail Udinese’s Match Plan Against Lazio
Kosta Runjaic left the Stadio Friuli convinced the match had slipped from his grasp long before the final whistle. For him, the turning point came not with Davide Frattesi’s equaliser or Albert Gudmundsson’s winner, but with two injuries before half-time that ripped up Udinese’s game plan.
Udinese had led. They had belief. And then they had nothing left to manage the contest the way their coach wanted.
Injuries derail Udinese’s plan
Jesper Karlstrom’s goal early in the second half should have been the platform. Udinese had survived Lazio’s early pressure and struck first, the stadium rising as Karlstrom put the hosts 1-0 up and briefly shifted the balance of a tense Serie A evening.
But the damage, in Runjaic’s eyes, had already been done.
Jakub Piotrowski and Oumar Solet both went off injured in the first half, forcing Udinese into two early substitution windows and draining the bench of flexibility. The coach did not hide how much that cost him.
“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,” he told DAZN, via TuttoMercatoWeb.
The doubts grew as Lazio grew. Gennaro Gattuso’s side, packed with new signings and expectation, finally punched through. Frattesi levelled, then Gudmundsson completed the turnaround, the visitors’ quality and depth starting to tell against a Udinese team patched together on the fly.
“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, as Frattesi battled Enzo Ebosse for every ball, the pattern was clear: Lazio had options everywhere; Udinese were running out of them.
Davis withdrawn as Udinese run out of answers
The physical toll did not stop with the first half. By the time the game moved into its decisive phase, both sides were visibly fading, but only one of them could really change it from the bench.
“Both teams were tired, but we have to respect their qualities and we weren’t able to have the possession we wanted,” Runjaic admitted.
That lack of control fed into another key call: the withdrawal of Keinan Davis. Chasing the game, Udinese removed their central striker, a decision that raised eyebrows but, for Runjaic, was non-negotiable.
“I didn’t want to risk Davis and the changes in the first half affected us,” he said.
Udinese’s problem runs deeper than one night’s misfortune. Runjaic openly acknowledged his squad lacks a natural like-for-like replacement for Davis, a structural issue that becomes brutal when early injuries eat into his options.
Behind him on the bench, summer signing James Abankwah waited but never became a solution. The coach was blunt about where the young defender stands in his development.
“Abankwah still has to adapt to the pace of Serie A and, in terms of the changes, Lazio were superior.”
On this evidence, he is right. Lazio could turn to established, ready-made answers. Udinese were left juggling risk, fatigue and inexperience.
Runjaic walked away with no points, two injuries, and one unavoidable conclusion: in a league decided by details and depth, Udinese cannot afford many more nights like this.
