The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been any cohesion holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, but then he to later acknowledge that the management had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he could resign were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Matteo's Unforeseen Presence
At least one man continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He was on the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, early this summer, Lazio were pushing for him to remain there for another season. The registration embargo forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team with no new signings.
He joined originally under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
