The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been a binding element holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he admitted that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Reports that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club became as messy during matches as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, it has been hard to tell if they are improving or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
At least one man continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay temporarily. The transfer ban forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was still trying to identify the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
