The atmosphere at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign unraveling, or did there exist any cohesion maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, only for him admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were facing for financial irregularities. Reports that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to tell if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He joined in the first place under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the exact type of his skill set. Originally described as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. During 63 outings on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
