The mood at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had allowed ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were facing for financial irregularities. Rumours that he might quit were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy on the pitch as off the field, beating 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, it's been difficult to determine if progress is being made or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
One individual continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the last one with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to identify the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
