The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he publicly stated that the management had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were facing for fiscal problems. Speculation that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic during matches as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other initial five matches, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
Matteo's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He signed in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to determine the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
