The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic in their performances as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other first five games, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to ascertain if progress is being made or self-destructing.
Matteo's Unforeseen Return
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, Lazio were advocating for him to stay there temporarily. The transfer ban forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived originally under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was still trying to identify the specific characteristics 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 as center forward. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
