The atmosphere at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or was there ever a binding element holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the board had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Reports that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Return
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this year. He spent the last one with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The registration embargo forced a rethink. They were unable to thin their squad with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived originally under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was still trying to work out the nature of the player's talent. Billed as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
