The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were facing for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Presence
One individual continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio this year. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, his parent club were attempting to stay there for another season. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to reduce their roster without replacements.
He signed in the first place under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, almost all of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Best Role
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
