The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had conceded a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or did there exist a thread holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, before he to later acknowledge that the board had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were about to receive for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their initial five matches, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to ascertain if progress is being made or imploding.
Matteo's Unexpected Presence
A single player continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to remain there temporarily. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to reduce their roster without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to determine the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
