The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had conceded 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, but then he admitted that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Rumours that he could resign were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic during matches as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if progress is being made or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Comeback
At least one man remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this season. He completed the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were attempting to stay there temporarily. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
