The atmosphere at their home stadium was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or did there exist a binding element holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, but then he publicly stated that the club had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, it has been hard to tell if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Return
One individual remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He completed the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there a while longer. The transfer ban forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the exact type of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. During 63 outings on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
