The mood at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign falling apart, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the management had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic in their performances as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining first five games, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, it has been hard to tell if they are improving or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Presence
One individual continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He was on the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were attempting to remain there temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster without replacements.
He signed initially during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was still trying to determine the nature of the player's talent. Billed as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
