The mood at their home stadium was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element holding it together to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he publicly stated that the club had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Speculation that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this year. He was on the last one with Parma on loan and, during the summer break, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there a while longer. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances with the club in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the nature of his skill set. Labeled as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
