The feeling at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Reports that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic during matches as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
The Youngster's Surprising Presence
A single player continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio this year. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay for another season. The signing restriction forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.
He joined initially when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the specific characteristics of the player's talent. Labeled as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
