The feeling at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, before he publicly stated that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Speculation that he could resign were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic in their performances as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Unforeseen Presence
A single player remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were attempting to remain there for another season. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad with no new signings.
He joined initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to determine the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
