The feeling at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. 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. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign falling apart, or did there exist any cohesion holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he admitted that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were without basis, 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 being defeated in their other initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it's been difficult to tell if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
One individual kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this year. He completed the last one on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He joined originally during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of his skill set. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
