The feeling at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had allowed a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were facing for accounting issues. Reports that he might quit were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Surprising Comeback
One individual continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, during the summer break, his parent club were pushing for him to remain there for another season. The registration embargo forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed originally during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
It's possible the coach was still trying to work out the nature of the player's talent. Billed as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
