The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had allowed a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or did there exist any cohesion keeping it intact from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the management had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were facing for fiscal problems. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
A single player continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this season. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were attempting to extend his stay a while longer. The transfer ban forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived initially when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, almost all of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to determine the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
