The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or had there never been any cohesion maintaining its structure to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the management had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Comeback
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this season. He completed the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there a while longer. The registration embargo forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to work out the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
