The atmosphere at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever a binding element holding it together from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized during matches as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if they're getting better or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Return
One individual kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay a while longer. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived originally under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to identify the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
