The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, but then he admitted that the management had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy in their performances as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Presence
One individual continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this season. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, during the summer break, Lazio were pushing for him to stay there temporarily. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league with the club in 2022-23, almost all of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
