The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had let in ten goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element keeping it intact to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, but then he admitted that the board had not mentioned the transfer ban they were facing for financial irregularities. Rumours that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it's been difficult to tell if they are improving or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Presence
One individual kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to be at Lazio this season. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. They were unable to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed initially under Sarri's first spell, 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, almost all of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the specific characteristics of the player's talent. Originally described as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
