The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had let in 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or was there ever a thread keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he admitted that the board had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for fiscal problems. Reports that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy during matches as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to determine if they are improving or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were pushing for him to remain there a while longer. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His True Position
It's possible the coach was still trying to determine the exact type of his skill set. Labeled as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
