The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had allowed ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or had there never been a binding element maintaining its structure to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, but then he admitted that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy 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, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, it has been hard to tell if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this year. He was on the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were attempting to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances with the club in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
