The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or did there exist a binding element maintaining its structure in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, but then he publicly stated that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized during matches as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or collapsing.
Matteo's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this year. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to stay there a while longer. The signing restriction forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived originally when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to identify the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
