The feeling at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, an opponent that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the club had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other initial five matches, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
The Youngster's Unexpected Presence
One individual kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed the last one with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to extend his stay for another season. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster lacking backup options.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances with the club in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was still trying to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
