The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, before he admitted that the club had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were facing for fiscal problems. Reports that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or imploding.
The Youngster's Surprising Return
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this season. He completed the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were pushing for him to remain there temporarily. The transfer ban forced a rethink. They were unable to reduce their roster without replacements.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of his skill set. Originally described as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
