The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had let in 10 goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that he could resign were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, it has been hard to ascertain if they are improving or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this season. He completed last season with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad without replacements.
He signed originally under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances with the club 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 "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the specific characteristics of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
