The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress unraveling, or had there never been a thread holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it has been hard to tell if progress is being made or imploding.
Matteo's Unexpected Comeback
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this year. He spent the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his owning club were advocating for him to stay there temporarily. The transfer ban forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He signed initially under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Uncovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the specific characteristics of the player's talent. Originally described as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
