Cancellieri Shows Brief Sparks of Exceptional Talent in Positive Aspect for Unstable Lazio
The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had conceded 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign unraveling, or had there never been a binding element maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining initial five matches, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
At least one man continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to remain there temporarily. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to reduce their roster with no new signings.
He signed originally under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances in Lazio colors in that campaign, all but one of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential only to bench him consistently."
Uncovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
