The atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had allowed ten goals while managing only two goals in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Reports that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He was on last season on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He joined originally under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
