The mood at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed a total of 10 goals while managing only two goals in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or was there ever any cohesion keeping it intact from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, only for him publicly stated that the board had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Reports that he might quit were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
One individual kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the last one with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were attempting to stay there a while longer. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He joined in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was still trying to identify the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
