The feeling at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or did there exist any cohesion holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, before he publicly stated that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Reports that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, it has been hard to ascertain if progress is being made or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Presence
At least one man kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to remain with Lazio this year. He completed last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were attempting to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to determine the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
