The atmosphere at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had conceded 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or was there ever a thread holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, only for him admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it has been hard to ascertain if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his owning club were pushing for him to stay there temporarily. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived originally when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the nature of his skill set. Billed as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri nevertheless spent most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
