The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, before he to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized during matches as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to tell if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Comeback
A single player continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this year. He was on last season with Parma on loan and, during the summer break, his parent club were advocating for him to remain there a while longer. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to determine the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
