Matteo Cancellieri Demonstrates Brief Sparks of Brilliance in Silver Lining for Struggling Lazio
The atmosphere at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him to later acknowledge that the board had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Comeback
At least one man remained positive 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, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to extend his stay for another season. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He joined in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was still trying to identify the specific characteristics of his skill set. Billed as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. During 63 outings during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
