The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, only for him to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were facing for financial irregularities. Reports that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their initial five matches, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it's been difficult to determine if they are improving or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Comeback
A single player kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to be at Lazio this year. He completed the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, back then just 20 years old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those from the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to determine the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
