The feeling at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had conceded a total of 10 goals while managing only two goals in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or did there exist a thread maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other initial five matches, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, observers have struggled to ascertain if progress is being made or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
At least one man kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this year. He was on last season with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay temporarily. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team with no new signings.
He joined in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, all but one 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 had superstar potential but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to identify the nature of his skill set. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
