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The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.

The Campaign Coming Unstitched?

Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, before he to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.

The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it has been hard to determine if progress is being made or collapsing.

The Youngster's Unexpected Presence

One individual kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to remain with Lazio this year. He completed last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to thin their squad with no new signings.

He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."

Discovering His True Position

Perhaps the manager was still trying to work out the exact type of his skill set. Billed as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri nevertheless spent most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn