The feeling at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever any cohesion keeping it intact from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the club had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were facing for financial irregularities. Reports that he could resign were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club became as messy in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it has been hard to ascertain if progress is being made or self-destructing.
Matteo's Surprising Return
At least one man continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He spent the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his owning club were attempting to stay there for another season. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Uncovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
