The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had allowed 10 goals while managing only two goals in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, only for him admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they're getting better or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unexpected Presence
A single player continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this season. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were attempting to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to determine the nature of his skill set. Billed as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
