The mood at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had conceded 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever a thread keeping it intact to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he publicly stated that the management had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic in their performances as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining first five games, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
A single player continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay for another season. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to reduce their roster with no new signings.
He signed originally under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in 2022-23, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to work out the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
