The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or did there exist any cohesion maintaining its structure in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, but then he admitted that the management had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Reports that his departure was imminent were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club became as messy during matches as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to tell if progress is being made or imploding.
The Youngster's Unexpected Presence
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, Lazio were advocating for him to remain there temporarily. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad without replacements.
He joined in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the exact type of the player's talent. Billed as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
