The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or did there exist a binding element holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, before he admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were facing for financial irregularities. Rumours that he could resign were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, it's been difficult to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Matteo's Unforeseen Return
One individual continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He completed last season with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were pushing for him to remain there for another season. The signing restriction forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He joined initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Uncovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was still trying to work out the nature of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
