The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or did there exist a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the management had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it's been difficult to tell if they're getting better or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Presence
At least one man remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were attempting to remain there for another season. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster lacking backup options.
He joined in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in that campaign, almost all of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was still trying to identify the exact type of his skill set. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
