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 most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign falling apart, or had there never been any cohesion keeping it intact to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it's been difficult to tell if they are improving or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, Lazio were pushing for him to remain there for another season. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to reduce their roster with no new signings.
He signed originally during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Finding His Best Role
It's possible the coach was persistently working to identify the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
