Matteo Cancellieri Displays Brief Sparks of Brilliance in Positive Aspect for Unstable Lazio
The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their initial five matches, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if progress is being made or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unexpected Return
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The registration embargo forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances for Lazio in that campaign, almost all of those coming off the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. During 63 outings during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
