The mood at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had allowed ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, only for him publicly stated that the management had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that he could resign were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Presence
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this season. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there a while longer. The transfer ban forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.
He signed originally during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Uncovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
