The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element keeping it intact in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, only for him to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Reports that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if progress is being made or self-destructing.
The Youngster's Surprising Presence
A single player kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to remain there temporarily. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to identify the specific characteristics of his skill set. Billed as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile at No 9. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
