The mood at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Falling Apart?
Had their campaign falling apart, or was there ever a thread holding it together to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were facing for fiscal problems. Speculation that he could resign were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, it has been hard to ascertain if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
One individual kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to remain with 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 pushing for him to extend his stay temporarily. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived originally during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 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 would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to identify the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
