The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were facing for financial irregularities. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it's been difficult to tell if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Comeback
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio during this campaign. He spent the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to remain there temporarily. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed originally when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the specific characteristics of his skill set. Originally described as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
