The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or was there ever a thread keeping it intact from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned the transfer ban they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Speculation that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining first five games, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Presence
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He completed the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there for another season. The transfer ban forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to reduce their roster with no new signings.
He joined in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, all but one of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
It's possible the coach was still trying to work out the exact type of his skill set. Labeled as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
