The atmosphere at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, an opponent that had let in 10 goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress unraveling, or was there ever a thread maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, before he publicly stated that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Reports that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
Matteo's Unforeseen Comeback
At least one man continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio this season. He completed the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived initially when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the exact type of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
