The mood at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had allowed a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress unraveling, or had there never been any cohesion keeping it intact in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club became as messy in their performances as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
At least one man kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this year. He completed the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, during the summer break, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad without replacements.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Finding His True Position
It's possible the coach was persistently working to identify the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
