The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had conceded a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread keeping it intact to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this season. He was on the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, Lazio were pushing for him to remain there temporarily. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived initially during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His True Position
It's possible the coach was persistently working to determine the exact type of his skill set. Originally described as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
