The atmosphere at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was the team's progress unraveling, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he publicly stated that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for accounting issues. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Return
A single player remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He spent the last one with Parma on loan and, during the summer break, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay a while longer. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to reduce their roster lacking backup options.
He signed originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was still trying to identify the nature of his skill set. Labeled as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. During 63 outings on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
