The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or did there exist any cohesion keeping it intact to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, before he admitted that the club had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their initial five matches, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if they are improving or self-destructing.
Matteo's Unexpected Return
At least one man kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay temporarily. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived initially when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in that campaign, almost all of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of his skill set. Originally described as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn