The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had conceded 10 goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or did there exist a binding element maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, but then he admitted that the board had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
At least one man continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, his owning club were pushing for him to remain there a while longer. The signing restriction forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri nevertheless spent most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
