The feeling at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, only for him to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Reports that he might quit were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized in their performances as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to tell if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Presence
At least one man remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to remain with Lazio this year. He completed last season on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, his parent club were attempting to stay there temporarily. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed initially when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
