The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded 10 goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign unraveling, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, before he admitted that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Speculation that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic during matches as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Comeback
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this season. He completed the last one on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were attempting to remain there for another season. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.
He signed in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in 2022-23, the vast majority of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was still trying to determine the nature of his skill set. Originally described as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
