The mood at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress unraveling, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he publicly stated that the board had not mentioned the transfer ban they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Reports that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic on the pitch as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, observers have struggled to tell if progress is being made or self-destructing.
The Youngster's Surprising Return
One individual kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to extend his stay for another season. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Uncovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
