The mood at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been any cohesion keeping it intact to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, but then he to later acknowledge that the club had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic on the pitch as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
One individual remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were attempting to extend his stay temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom but then not selecting him."
Discovering His Best Role
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to identify the exact type of his skill set. Originally described as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
