The feeling at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign falling apart, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, but then he publicly stated that the management had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Speculation that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, it has been hard to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
One individual continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this year. He spent last season with Parma on loan and, early this summer, Lazio were attempting to stay there for another season. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived initially when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in 2022-23, the vast majority of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of his skill set. Labeled as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
