The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while managing only two goals in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever a thread keeping it intact in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he publicly stated that the board had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were facing for fiscal problems. Rumours that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "swindled" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to determine if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Surprising Return
One individual kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the last one at Parma as a loanee and, during the summer break, his parent club were attempting to stay there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to reduce their roster without replacements.
He signed initially under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Uncovering His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
