The atmosphere at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Had their campaign falling apart, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he could resign were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, it has been hard to tell if progress is being made or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Comeback
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He spent the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were pushing for him to stay there for another season. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to reduce their roster lacking backup options.
He joined in the first place under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to identify the exact type of his skill set. Billed as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
