The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, an opponent that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever a thread holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, before he publicly stated that the club had not mentioned the transfer ban they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Speculation that he might quit were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there temporarily. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He signed initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, almost all 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 only to bench him consistently."
Uncovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
