The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had let in 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign falling apart, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he admitted that the management had not mentioned the transfer ban they were about to receive for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their initial five matches, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it's been difficult to tell if they are improving or self-destructing.
The Youngster's Unexpected Return
At least one man remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to stay there a while longer. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to reduce their roster with no new signings.
He joined initially during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of his skill set. Billed 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 on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
