Cancellieri Demonstrates Glimpses of Brilliance in Bright Spot for Haywire Lazio
The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had let in 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or had there never been any cohesion keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if progress is being made or imploding.
Matteo's Unexpected Presence
One individual continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He completed last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to remain there temporarily. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in that campaign, all but one of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Finding His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to work out the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
