The atmosphere at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, but then he publicly stated that the management had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it's been difficult to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Return
One individual continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one with Parma on loan and, early this summer, Lazio were attempting to remain there temporarily. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Uncovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
