The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy during the weekend fixture. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been any cohesion maintaining its structure from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic in their performances as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it's been difficult to determine if they are improving or self-destructing.
The Youngster's Unexpected Presence
At least one man kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were pushing for him to extend his stay for another season. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He signed in the first place under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Billed as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
