The feeling at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if they're getting better or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to stay there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to work out the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
