The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had allowed ten goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever any cohesion holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, but then he admitted that the club had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that he could resign were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other first five games, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it's been difficult to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
One individual remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were pushing for him to extend his stay for another season. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He signed in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the exact type of his skill set. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
