The feeling at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or did there exist a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, only for him admitted that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were facing for accounting issues. Reports that he might quit were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if they are improving or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio this year. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were attempting to stay there for another season. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to identify the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
