The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had allowed ten goals while managing only two goals in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign unraveling, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he publicly stated that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were about to receive for accounting issues. Reports that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
Matteo's Surprising Return
One individual kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this year. He completed the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there temporarily. The registration embargo forced a rethink. They were unable to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, almost all of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was still trying to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. During 63 outings on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
