The atmosphere at their home stadium was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been a thread keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were facing for financial irregularities. Speculation that he could resign were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their initial five matches, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to ascertain if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Matteo's Unexpected Return
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this year. He was on the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, his parent club were advocating for him to remain there a while longer. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to reduce their roster with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances with the club in that campaign, almost all of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was still trying to determine the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season 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
