The mood at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had allowed a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been a thread keeping it intact in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, only for him admitted that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
One individual kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his owning club were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to work out the specific characteristics of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent most of that campaign 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 scored seven times. Shoehorn
