The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or had there never been a binding element maintaining its structure to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, before he admitted that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if progress is being made or collapsing.
Matteo's Unforeseen Presence
One individual continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his owning club were attempting to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team with no new signings.
He signed originally under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to determine the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri nevertheless spent the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. During 63 outings on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
